WALL AND WATER GARDENS 




A GARDEN OF WALL AND WATER. 



The ''Country Life" 
Library. 



WALL AND WATER 
GARDENS. 



BY 



GERTRUDE JEKYLL. 




y 



NEW YORK : 

CHARLES SCRIBNEr's SONS 

153-157, FIFTH AVENUE. 
I9OI. 







3 -OCT 25 



PREFACE 

There is scarcely an English country home where 
some kind of gardening is not practised, while in a 
very large number of country places their owners 
have in some degree become aware of the happiness 
that comes of a love of flowers, and of how much 
that happiness increases when personal labour and 
study work together to a better knowledge of their 
wants and ways. 

In this book a portion only of the great subject of 
horticulture is considered, namely, simple ways of 
using some of the many beautiful mountain plants, 
and the plants of marsh and water. It is intended 
as a guide to amateurs, being written by one of their 
number, who has tried to work out some of the pro- 
blems presented by the use of these classes of plants 
to the bettering of our gardens and outer grounds. 

The book does not attempt to exhaust the subject, 
neither does it presume to lay down the law. It is 
enough, in the case of the rock and wall plants, for 
instance, to name some of the best and easiest to 
grow. Those who will make such use of it as to 



71 PREFACE 

work out any of the examples it suggests, will then 
have learnt so much for themselves that they will 
be able to profit by more learned books and more 
copious lists of flowers. 

The large quantity of pictorial illustration is in 
itself helpful teaching. " I like a book with pictures " 
is not only an idle speech of those who open a book 
in order to enjoy the trivial intellectual tickling of the 
thing actually represented ; but the illustrations are 
of distinct educational value, in that they present 
aspects of things beautiful, or of matters desirable 
for practice, much more vividly than can be done 
by the unpictured text. 

I am indebted to the proprietors of The Garden for 
the use of some of the illustrations, and for a valuable 
list of plants and other particulars communicated to 
that journal by Mr. Correvon of Geneva ; also to the 
proprietors of Country Life for a still larger number 
of subjects for illustration ; to Mr. G. F. Wilson of 
Weybridge and Wisley for several photographs for 
reproduction ; and to Mr. W. Robinson for two 
photographs of unusual interest. I have also to 
acknowledge the kind help of Mr. James Hudson, 
who compiled the list of Water-Lilies at the end of 
the last chapter. 

In some cases I have made critical observations 



PREFACE vii 

on pictures showing portions of various English 
gardens. If any apology is due to the owners of 
these gardens I freely offer it, though I venture to 
feel sure that they ^will perceive my intention to be 
not so much criticism of the place itself as the sug- 
gestion of alternatives of treatment such as might 
also be desirable in places presenting analogous 
conditions. 

G. J. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

THE DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN I 

CHAPTER n 

DRY-WALLING AND ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION . . lO 

CHAPTER HI 

THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN l6 

CHAPTER IV 

THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 28 

CHAPTER V 

NATIVE PLANTS IN THE ROCK-WALL 36 

CHAPTER VI 

TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 42 

CHAPTER VII 

TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS {cOJltiniied) . . . -51 

CHAPTER VIII 

SOME PROBLEMS IN WALL-GARDENING . . . 59 

CHAPTER IX 

WHEN TO LET WELL ALONE 63 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER X 

PAGE 

THE STREAM-GARDEN AND MARSH POOLS .... 66 

CHAPTER XI 

THE ROCK-GARDEN — GENERAL ARRANGEMENT . . . 8o 

CHAPTER Xn 

THE ROCK-GARDEN {C07lti7iued) 90 

CHAPTER XHI 

THE ALPINE GARDEN lOO 



CHAPTER XIV 

LAKES AND LARGE PONDS I09 

CHAPTER XV 

SMALL PONDS AND POOLS Ill 



CHAPTER XVI 

TUBS IN SMALL WATER OR BOG GARDENS . . . . I28 

CHAPTER XVII 

TANKS IN GARDEN DESIGN I35 

CHAPTER XVIII 

A LILY TANK IN A FORMAL GARDEN 141 

CHAPTER XIX 

WATER MARGINS 154 

CHAPTER XX 

WATER-LILIES . . 160 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



A Garden of Wall and Water 

Cerastium in the Dry Wall 

Easy Steps with Dry-Walling 

Erinus and other Wall Plants 

Dwarf Lavender 

Rose and Pinks in the Dry Wall 

Achillea umbellata 

Achillea umbellata in Winter 

Iceland Poppy on the Dry Wall 

Arabis in a Dry Wall . 

Diagram (section) of Face of Rock-Wall 

Rock-Walling Construction . 

Rock-Walling Construction 

Rough Steps .... 

Rough Steps in a Grass Bank 

Erinus in Rough Steps . 

Alpine Plants in Sunny Wall 

Cerastium in a Sunny Wall. 

Campanula garganica 

Campanula isophylla 

Iberis and Cerastium 

Stonecrop in a Sunny Wall. 

Lavender-Cotton in Winter . 

Wahlenbergia dalmatica 

Stob^a purpurea 

Outer Wall, Alhambra, Granada 

Foliage of Iris, &c., at Foot of Wall 

Saponaria, &c., in Sunny Wall . 



Frontispiece 


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XI 1 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Saxifraga longifolia, &c., in Sunny Wall 
Ferns at a Northern Wall-Foot 
Anemone and Primroses at Wall-Foot 
White Erinus in a Shady Wall 
Ramondia pyrenaica 
Smilacina bifolia . 
Campanula pusilla 
Primula viscosa 
Stitchwort in a Rock-Wall 

CORYDALIS LUTEA 

Red Valerian in Old Castle Wall 

CORYDALIS AND FeRN IN OlD WaLL 

An Old Moat Wall 

Old Moat Wall with Inner Wall 

A Double Terrace .... 

Old Garden Wall Enclosing Wilderness 

Old Outer Garden Wall 

An Old H.P. Rose .... 

Rubus deliciosus .... 

Pi^ONY Border and Old Buildings 

Bowling-Green of a Tudor House 

A Well-Planted Wall and Border 

Terraced Garden on Steep Slope 

Middle Terrace, Looking East . 

Middle Terrace, Looking West . 

Lower Terrace .... 

Creepers on a Beautiful Old House 

Campanulas in Stone Steps . 

Garden Steps Overgrown 

Grouping of Tree and Wall 

Bridge with Wild Overgrowth . 

Arches, Pescina Anagni, Italy . 

Flagged Passage with Pergola . 

An Old Wall with Open Joints . 

Diagram : Grouping of Wall Plants 

Brick Wall that could be Planted 

Arabis, Type of Hanging Wall Plant 



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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



XIU 



A Fine House with Unbroken Lawn, &c 

A Wood Pool .... 

A Stream Garden . 

Iris l^vigata .... 

Iris laevigata in Japan . 

Water Buttercup . 

Stream by Willows and Alders 

Galax aphylla 

Xerophyllum asphodeloides 

Zenobia speciosa 

Steps in Rock-Garden . 

A Valley-Shaped Rock-Garden 

Rock-Garden Crowned with Small S 

Menziesia, the Irish Heath . 

Plan of the Rock-Garden . 

Aubrietia in the Rock-Garden 

Lithospermum prostratum . 

Arenaria balearica 

London Pride .... 

Androsace lanuginosa . 

A Wild Rock-Garden . 

Double Sea Campion 

Hardy Red-Flowered Opuntia 

In the Rock-Garden at Kew 

Bank of Spring Flowers at Bath 

Pool in Messrs. Backhouse's Rock-Garden 

In Messrs. Backhouse's Rock-Garden 

White Hoop-Petticoat Narcissus 

Type of the Smaller Silvery Saxifrages 

Saxifraga longifolia 

Saxifraga burseriana 

Gentianella . 

Silene alpestris 

Sempervivum Laggeri 

Scotch Fir on Lake Shore 

Royal Fern (Osmunda) . 

River Edge. Ranunculus florieundus, &c 



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XIV 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



BUCKBEAN AND ChAIR-RuSH . 

gunnera manicata 

Nymph^aodorata withBuckbean, &c., at Margin 

Rhododendrons by Water . 

Poplars and Water Violet . 

Stream and Pool Garden, by Messrs. Veitch of 

Exeter 

Rock Pool, by Messrs. Veitch of Exeter . 
Castle Moat with Wild Growths 
Rock and Pool Garden .... 
Pool at the Villa d'Este .... 
Rock-Bank and Tank in Bog-Garden . 
Rough Seat and Flowers in Bog-Garden . 
Garden-Tank with Rough Kerb . 
Garden-Tank with Slightly Raised Kerb 
Pool in a Brick-Walled Garden Court . 
Pool in a Garden Court .... 
Diagram : Pool with Dangerous Edge 
Court in the Generalife Gardens, Granada 
Pompeii, Atrium and Peristylium 
Fern-clad Rock-Walls at the Villa d'Este 
Balustraded Pool in an Italian Garden . 
Plan of the Garden described . 
Stairway at the Villa d'Este . 
Rock and Stream-Garden in Devonshire . 
Iris l^^vigata in Mr. Wilson's Garden 
Cow-Parsnip (Heracleum) 
A Flowery Pond Edge , 
A Pond that might be Improved 
Water-Lilies in a Sheltered Pond 
Water-Lilies 



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CERASTIUM IN THE DRY-WALL. 



WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

CHAPTER I 

THE DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN 

Many a garden has to be made on a hillside more or 
less steep. The conditions of such a site naturally 
suggest some form of terracing, and in connection 
with a house of modest size and kind, nothing is 
prettier or pleasanter than all the various ways of 
terraced treatment that may be practised with the help 
of dry-walling, that is to say, rough wall-building 
without mortar, especially where a suitable kind of 
stone can be had locally. 

It is well in sharply-sloping ground to keep the 
paths as nearly level as may be, whether they are in 
straight lines or whether they curve in following the 
natural contour of the ground. Many more beautiful 
garden-pictures may be made by variety in planting 
even quite straightly terraced spaces than at first 
appears possible, and the frequent flights of steps, 
always beautiful if easy and well proportioned, will be 
of the greatest value. When steps are built in this 
kind of rough terracing the almost invariable fault is 
that they are made too steep and too narrow in the 



2 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

tread. It is a good rule to make the steps so easy that 
one can run up and down them, whether of skilled 
workmanship, as in the present illustration, or rough, 
as in that at p. 14. There is no reason or excuse for 
the steep, ugly, and even dangerous steps one so often 
sees. Unless the paths come too close together on 
the upper and lower terraces, space for the more 
easy gradient can be cut away above, and the steps 
can also be carried out free below ; the ground cut 
through above being supported by dry-walling at the 
sides of the steps, and where the steps stand up clear 
below, their sides being built up free. If for any 
reason this is difficult or inexpedient, a landing can be 
built out and the steps carried down sideways instead 
of up and down the face of the hill. In fact, there is 
no end to the pretty and interesting ways of using 
such walling and such groups of steps. 

Where the stairway cuts through the bank and is 
lined on each side by the dry-walling, the whole 
structure becomes a garden of delightful small things. 
Little Ferns are planted in the joints on the shadier 
side as the wall goes up, and numbers of small Saxi- 
frages and Stonecrops, Pennywort and Erinus, Cory- 
dalis and Sandwort. Then there will be hanging 
sheets of Aubrietia and Rock Pinks, Iberis and Ceras- 
tium, and many another pretty plant that will find a 
happy home in the cool shelter of the rocky joint. In 
some regions of the walling Wallflowers and Snap- 
dragons and plants of Thrift can be established ; as 
they ripen their seed it drifts into the openings of 
other joints, and the seedlings send their roots deep 




ERIN us, SrONECROPS AND TUFTS OF SILENE ACAULIS. 



DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN 3 

into the bank and along the cool backs of the stones, 
and make plants of surprising health and vigour that 
are longer lived than the softer-grown plants in the 
rich flower-borders. 

I doubt if there is any way in which a good quantity 
of plants, and of bushes of moderate size, can be so 
well seen and enjoyed as in one of these roughly 
terraced gardens, for one sees them up and down and 
in all sorts of ways, and one has a chance of seeing 
many lovely flowers clear against the sky, and of per- 
haps catching some sweetly-scented tiny thing like 
Dianthus fragrans at exactly nose-height and eye-level, 
and so of enjoying its tender beauty and powerful 
fragrance in a way that had never before been found 
possible. 

Then the beautiful details of structure and marking 
in such plants as the silvery Saxifrages can never be 
so well seen as in a wall at the level of the eye or just 
above or below it ; and plain to see are all the pretty 
ways these small plants have of seating themselves on 
projections or nestling into hollows, or creeping over 
stony surface as does the Balearic Sandwort, or stand- 
ing like Erinus with its back pressed to the wall in an 
attitude of soldier-like bolt-uprightness. 

In place of all this easily attained prettiness how 
many gardens on sloping ground are disfigured by 
profitless and quite indefensible steep banks of mown 
grass ! Hardly anything can be so undesirable in a 
garden. Such banks are unbeautiful, troublesome to 
mow, and wasteful of spaces that might be full of 
interest. If there must be a sloping space, and if for 



4 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

any reason there cannot be a dry wall, it is better to 
plant the slope with low bushy or rambling things ; 
with creeping Cotoneaster or Japan Honeysuckle, with 
Ivies or with such bushes as Savin, Pyrus japonica, 
Cistus, or Berberis ; or if it is on a large scale, with the 
free-growing rambling Roses and double-flowered 
Brambles. I name these things in preference to the 
rather over-done Periwinkle and St. John's-wort, 
because Periwinkle is troublesome to weed, and soon 
grows into undesirably tight masses, and the Hyperi- 
cum, though sometimes of good effect, is extremely 
monotonous in large masses by itself, and is so 
ground-greedy that it allows of no companionship. 

There is another great advantage to be gained by the 
use of the terrace walls ; this is the display of the many 
shrubs as well as plants that will hang over and throw 
their flowering sprays all over the face of the wall. 

In arranging such gardens, I like to have only a very 
narrow border at the foot of each wall to accommo- 
date such plants as the dwarf Lavender shown in the 
illustration, or any plant that is thankful for warmth 
or shelter. 

In many cases, or even most, it will be best to have 
no border at all, but to make a slight preparation at 
the wall foot not apparently distinguishable from the 
path itself, and to have only an occasional plant or 
group or tuft of Fern. Seeds will fall to this point, 
and the trailing and sheeting plants will clothe the 
wall foot and path edge, and the whole thing will look 
much better than if it had a stiffly edged border. 

I suppose the whole width of the terrace to be four- 



'Jf^^f^ 





AN OLD GARDEN ROSE 



AND HYBRID 
DRY- WALL. 



ROCK riNKS IN THE 



DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN 5 

teen feet. I would have the path six feet wide, allow- 
ing an extra foot for the rooting of plants next the 
wall ; then there would be a seven-foot width for the 
border, planted with bushy things towards its outer 
edge, which will be the top of the wall of the next 
terrace below. These would be mostly bushes of 
moderate growth, such as Lavender, Rosemary, Ber- 
beris, and Pyrus Japonica, with the plants suitable for 
partly hanging over the face of the wall. Among these 
would be Forsythia suspensa, Phlomis fruticosa (Jeru- 
salem Sage), and the common Barberry, so beautiful 
with its coral-like masses of fruit in October, its half- 
weeping habit of growth, and its way of disposing its 
branches in pictorial masses. There would also be Des- 
modium pendtdiflorum, and above all the many kinds of 
Roses that grow and flower so kindly in such a posi- 
tion. No one can know till they try how well many 
sorts of Roses will tumble over walls and flower in 
profusion. Rosa lucida and Scotch Briers come over 
a wall nearly five feet high, and flower within a foot 
from the ground ; Rosa wichuriana comes over in a 
curtain of delicate white bloom and polished leafage. 
There is a neat and pretty evergreen form of R. sem- 
pervirens from Southern Italy, in leaf and habit not 
unlike wichuriana^ but always more shy of flower, 
which hangs over in masses, and in warm exposures 
flowers more freely than on the flat. If one had to 
clothe the face of a wall twelve feet high with hanging 
wreaths of flowering Roses, there is a garden form 
of R. arvense that, planted at the top, will climb and 
scramble either up or down, and will ramble through 



6 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

other bushes to almost any extent. I know it as the 
kitchen Rose, because the oldest plant I have rambles 
over and through some Arbor-vitcB just opposite the 
kitchen window of a little cottage that I lived in for 
two years. When it is in flower the mass of white 
bloom throws a distinctly appreciable light into the 
kitchen. The Ayrshire Roses are delightful things for 
this kind of use. 

Where in steep ground the terraces come near to- 
gether the scheme may comprise some heroic doings 
with plants of monumental aspect, for at the outer 
edge of one of the wall tops there may be a great 
group of Yucca gloriosa or Y. recurva, some of it 
actually planted in the wall within a course or two 
of the top, or some top stones may be left out ; or 
the Yuccas may be planted as the wall goes up, with 
small kinds such as Y. fiaccida a little lower down. 
Another such group, of different shape but clearly 
in relation to it, may be in the next terrace above or 
below. When the Yuccas are in flower and are seen 
from below, complete in their splendid dignity of 
solid leaf and immense spire of ivory bloom against 
the often cloudless blue of our summer skies, their 
owner will rejoice in possessing a picture of per- 
haps the highest degree of nobility of plant form 
that may be seen in an English garden. 

The garden of dry-walled terraces will necessarily 
be differently treated if its exposure is to the full 
southern or south-western sunshine, or to the north 
or north-east. In the case of the hot, dry, sunny 
aspect, a large proportion of the South European 




ACHILLEA UMBELLATA NINE MONTHS AFTER PLANTING. 




ACHILLEA UMBELLATA IN MID-WINTER, SIXTEEN MONTHS 

AFTER PLANTING. 

(HalJ of the same group that is shown at p. 6, scale rather larger.) 



DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN 7 

plants that are hardy in England and like warm 
places in our gardens, can be used. Many of these 
have greyish foliage, and it would be greatly to the 
advantage of the planting, from the pictorial point 
of view, to keep these rather near together. It should 
also be noted that a large proportion of these, of 
shrubby and half-shrubby character, are good winter 
plants, such as Lavender, Rosemary, Phlomis, Othon- 
nopsis, and Santolina ; the latter, as may be seen in 
the illustration, being specially well clothed in the 
winter months. These can be as well planted at the 
top edge of the wall, at the bottom, or in the face. 
With these plants well grouped, and the addition of 
some common white Pinks, and the useful hybrids 
of Rock Pinks ; with a few grey-leaved Alpines such 
as Cerastium, Artemisia nana, A. sericea, the encrusted 
Saxifrages, and Achillea umbellata, a piece of the best 
possible wall-gardening can be done that will be as 
complete and well furnished in winter (all but the 
bloom of the plants) as it is in summer. Achillea 
umbellata is a plant of extreme value in wall-planting 
in all aspects. It grows fairly fast, and from a few 
pieces of a pulled-apart plant will in a short time 
give the result shown in the illustrations ; it should 
be replanted every three years. There is no need in 
such a case to remember the exact date of planting. 
The plant is at its best in its first and second year ; 
then it begins to look a little straggly and over-worn. 
This may be taken as the signal for replanting, as in 
all such cases with any other plants. 
The above selection of plants would serve for quite 



8 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

a long section of wall. The character of the planting 
might then change and gradually give way to another 
grouping that might be mainly of Cistuses. With 
these, and in the hottest wall-spaces, might come 
some of the South European Campanulas ; C. iso- 
phylla, both blue and white, C. garganica, C. fragilis, 
and C. muralis. These gems of their kind live and 
do well in upright walling, whereas they would perish 
on the more open rockery, or could only be kept 
alive by some unbeautiful device for a winter pro- 
tection. 

Not only does the wall afford the shelter needed 
for plants that would otherwise be scarcely hardy, 
but the fact of planting them with the roots spread 
horizontally, and the crown of the plant therefore 
more or less upright instead of flat, obviates the 
danger that besets so many tender plants, of an 
accumulation of wet settling in the crown, then 
freezing and causing the plant to decay. 

In many places where these rather tender southern 
plants are grown, they have to have a covering of 
sheets of glass in the winter, whereas in the wall 
they are safe and have no need of these unsightly 
contrivances. 

Some of the Plants and Shrubs for 
Dry-Walled Terraces 

In a Cool Place 

Saxifrages, Mossy. Corydalis. 

Wall Pennywort. Erintis alpinus (cool or warm). 

Arenaria balearica. Small Ferns. 




ICELAND POPPY A I i HI: I UP OF THE ROCK-WALL. 




ARAB IS IN A DRY -WALL. 



DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN 9 

To Hang Down 

Rock Pinks. Aubrietia. 

Iberis. Cerasttum. 

Alyssum. Mossy Saxifrage (cool). 

In Sun or Shade 

Wallflowers. Thrift. 

Snapdragons. Dianthus fragrans . 



Shrubs to Hang 
Cistus cyprius. 
C. laurifolius. 
Lavender. 

Othonnopsis cheirifolia. 
Desmodiu7n penduliflorum. 
Rosa lucida. 
R. sempervirens, vars. 



Over from the Top 

Phlomis fruticosa. 

Santolina chamcecyparissus. 

Rosemary. 

Berberis vulgaris. 

Pyrus japonica. 

Rosa wichuriana. 

R. arvense, garden vars. 



Grey-leaved Alpine Plants for the Wall 
Cerasttum tomentosufii. Achillea umbel lata. 



Artemisia nana. 



Artemisia sericea. 



Plants for Hottest Places 



Campanula isophylla. 
C. fragilis. 
Yucca gloriosa. 
V. Haccida. 



Campanula garganica. 
C. muralis. 
Yucca recurva. 
Opuntia, in var. 



CHAPTER II 

DRY-WALLING AND ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION 

A ROCK-GARDEN may be anything between an upright 
wall and a nearly dead level. It is generally an arti- 
ficial structure of earth and stones, and alas ! only 
too often it is an aggregation of shapeless mounds and 
hollows made anyhow. Such a place is not only 
ugly but is very likely not suitable for the plants 
that are intended to grow in it. If any success in 
the cultivation of rock-plants is expected, it is only 
reasonable to suppose that one must take the trouble 
to learn something about the plants, their kinds and 
their needs, and it is equally necessary to take the 
trouble to learn how their places are to be prepared. 
Happily for the chances of success and pleasure in 
this delightful kind of gardening the right way is also 
the most beautiful way. There is no need to sur- 
round every little plant with a kind of enclosure of 
stones, set on edge and pointing to all four points of 
the compass ; it is far better to set the stones more 
or less in courses or in lines of stratification, just as 
we see them in nature in a stone quarry or any moun- 
tain side where surface denudation has left them 
standing out clear in nearly parallel lines. It matters 
not the least whether the courses are far apart or 




DIAGRAM (SECTION) SHOWING ALTERNATIVE ARRANGEMENT 
OF THE FACE OF THE STONES IN A ROCK-WALL 

AT AN ANGLE OF 45°. {Sec p. ii ) 



ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION ii 

near together; this is naturally settled by the steep- 
ness of the ground. In a wall they are necessarily 
close, and in very steep ground it is convenient to 
build them with the courses rather near each other. 
In such a case as a steep slope with an angle of 45 
degrees, the face of the rock-bank could be built in 
either of the two ways shown in the diagram. Both 
will suit the plants. The flatter the angle of the 
ground the further apart may be the rocky courses, 
as the danger of the earth washing away is diminished. 
If the stone is not in large pieces, it will be found 
a good plan in rather steep banks to begin at the 
path level with a few courses of dry-walling, and then 
to make an earthy shelf and then another rise of two 
or three courses of walling, using the two or three 
courses to represent one thickness of deeper stone. 
But in any case the rock-builder should make up his 
mind how the courses should run and keep to the 
same rule throughout, whether the stones lie level 
or dip a little to right or left as they generally do in 
nature. But whether a stone lies level or not as to 
the right and left of its front face, it should always 
be laid so that its back end tips down into the ground, 
and its front face, when seen in profile, looks a little 
upward. 

This, it will be seen, carries the rain into the ground 
instead of shooting it off as it would do if it were laid 
the other way, like the tile or slate on a building. 

As for the general shape or plan of the rock-garden, 
it must be governed by the nature of the ground and 
the means and material at disposal. But whether it 



12 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

will be beautiful or not as a structure must depend 
on the knowledge and good taste of the person who 
plans it and sees it carried out. 

As mentioned elsewhere, it is both highly desirable 
and extremely convenient to have different sections of 
the garden for the plants from different geological 
formations, therefore we will suppose that a portion is 
of limestone, and another of granite, and a third of 
sandstone with peat. If this sandstone and peat is 
mainly in the shadiest and coolest place, and can have 
a damp portion of a few square yards at its foot, it will 
be all the better. Of course if a pool can be managed, 
or the rock-garden can be on one or both banks of 
a little stream or rill, the possibilities of beautiful 
gardening will be endless. 

In making the dry-walling the stones should all tip 
a little downwards at the back, and the whole face of 
the wall should incline slightly backward, so that no 
drop of rain is lost, but all runs into the joints. Any 
loose earth at the back of the stones must be closely 
rammed. If this is done there is no danger of the 
wall bursting outward and coming down when there 
is heavy rain. Any space backward of newly moved 
earth behind the wall must also be rammed and made 
firm in the same way. 

The two illustrations of a bit of dry wall freshly 
put up give an idea of the way it is built. The one 
containing the angle shows how the stones are tipped 
back, while the one with the straight front shows how 
spaces at some of the joints and between the courses 
are left for planting. If the scheme of planting is 



ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION 13 

matured and everything at hand as the wall goes up, 
it is much best to plant as the stones are laid. The 
roots can then be laid well out, and larger plants can 
be used than if they were to be put in when the wall 
is completed. 

In making the steps that go with such dry-walling 
it will not be necessary that they should be entirely 
paved with stones. If the front edge is carefully fitted 
and fixed the rest can be levelled up with earth and 
the sides and angles planted with bits of Mossy Saxi- 
frages or other small growths. This is also a capital 
way of making steps in steep wood paths. In such 
places the use of thick wooden slab as an edging is a 
much worse expedient, for in wet or wintry weather it 
becomes extremely slippery and dangerous. 

The steps themselves will become flower gardens ; 
only the front edges need be cemented ; indeed, if the 
stones are large and heavy enough to be quite firm 
there need be no cement ; but if two or three stones 
are used to form the edge of a four-foot-wide step it is 
just as well to make a cement joint to fix the whole 
firmly together. This fixing need not be made to 
show as a conspicuous artificial joint; it can be kept 
well down between the stones, and spaces left above 
and below to form many a little nook where a tiny 
Fern may be planted or a little tuft of some other 
small plant — any plant that one may most wish to see 
there. If the space is cool and shady the little 
Saxifraga Cynibalaria is a charming thing. It is an 
annual, but always grows again self-sown ; in the 
depth of winter its cheerful tufts of little bluntly-lobed 



14 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

leaves look fresh and pretty in the joints of stones. It 
flowers quite early in the year and then withers away 
completely, but the seeds sow themselves, and so with- 
out any one taking any thought or trouble it renews 
itself faithfully from year to year. Many small Ferns 
will also be quite happy in the front joints of the 
shady steps, such as Cheilanthes vestita, Cystopteris 
fragilis and C, dickieana^ Aspleniuni Trichomanes, A. 
Ruta-muraria, Ceterach, and the Woodsias. 

The little creeping Arenaria balearica will grow up 
the cool side of the wall or the front edge of steps and 
be a carpet of vivid green in deepest winter, and in 
June will show a galaxy of little white stars on inch- 
long thread-like stalks that shiver in the prettiest way 
to the puffing of a breath of wind or the weight of 
raindrops of a summer shower. 

In a couple of years or even less, small Mosses will 
appear on the stones themselves, and the spores of 
Ferns wind-blown will settle in the stony face and in 
the joints ; then will come the delight of seeing these 
lovely things growing spontaneously, and coming 
willingly to live in the homes we have made ready 
for them. 

No little flowering plant seems more willing to take 
to such a place than Erinus alpinus. As soon as steps 
grow mossy (even if they are of solid bricklayer's work 
with mortar joints), if a few seeds of Erinus are sown 
in the mossy tufts they will gladly grow as shown in 
the illustration, where this cheerful little plant has 
been established on some solid steps of rough sand- 
stone leading to a loft, and now scatters its own seed 




STEPS IN A ROUGH GRASS BANK ; STONES CEMENTED AT FRONT. 



ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION 15 

and is quite at home as a well-settled colony 
making natural increase. This is an extreme case, 
for the little Alpine has nothing whatever to grow in 
but the mossy tufts that have gathered of themselves 
within the time, some eight years, since the steps were 
built. Had the steps been of dry-walling, such as was 
described in the early part of the chapter, they would 
have grown all the quicker, having the more favour- 
able conditions of a better root-run. 



CHAPTER III 

THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 

Many of the most easily grown Alpines are just as 
happy on a sunny wall as in the shade. So bene- 
ficent to the roots is contact with the cool stone, that 
plants that would perish from drought in the lighter 
soils and fierce sun-heat of our southern counties 
remain fresh and well nourished in a rock-wall in 
the hottest exposure. Moreover, in walls all plants 
seem to be longer lived. Those of the truly saxatile 
plants, whose way of growth is to droop over rocks 
and spread out flowering sheets, are never so happy 
as in a rock-wall. But it cannot be too often re- 
peated that to get good effects a few kinds only 
should be used at a time. So only can we enjoy 
the full beauty of the plant and see what it really can 
do for us ; so only can we judge of what the plant 
really is, and get to know its ways. In many of 
those rock-plants that are grown from seed, indi- 
viduals will be found to vary, not only in the colour 
and size of the bloom, but in other characters, so that 
the plant cannot be judged by one example only. 
Look at the variety in trees — in Birches, in Hollies, 
in Oaks ! Still more is this natural variation notice- 
able in small plants that are close to the eye. In 

i6 




ALPINE PLANTS IN A SUNNY LIMESTONE WALL AT THE 

JARDIN ALPIN D'ACCLIMATATION, GENEVA. SAXIFRAGA 

LONGI FOLIA, ERINUS. PHYTEUMA COMOSUM, ETC. 

(Fay Siixifraga Lougi folia in Flower see p. loo.) 



THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 17 

watching a number of the same kind one learns how 
to judge them ; one sees in Cerastium, for instance, 
such as one of the many tufts hanging out of the 
wall in the picture, that one tuft has a brighter and 
better appearance than the next one. Then one sees 
that the flower, which at first one had thought was 
whiter than its neighbour, is not different in colour, 
but has rather wider petals, and that they open more 
and lie a little flatter, and that the leaf is somewhat 
broader and its downy covering slightly heavier and 
therefore whiter looking. 

Nothing is a better lesson in the knowledge of 
plants than to sit down in front of them, and handle 
them and look them over just as carefully as possible ; 
and in no way can such study be more pleasantly or 
conveniently carried on than by taking a light seat to 
the rock-wall and giving plenty of time to each kind 
of little plant, examining it closely and asking oneself, 
and it, why this and why that. Especially if the first 
glance shows two tufts, one with a better appearance 
than the other ; not to stir from the place until one 
has found out why and how it is done, and all about 
it. Of course a friend who has already gone through 
it all can help on the lesson more quickly, but 1 doubt 
whether it is not best to do it all for oneself. 

Then the hanging plants, Cerastium, Alyssum, Aub- 
rietia, Silene, Arabis, Gypsophila, Saponaria, Rock Pinks 
and the like, though they grow quite happily on the 
level, do not show their true habit as they do when 
they are given the nearly upright wall out of which 
they can hang. There are plenty of plants for the 

B 



i8 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

level, and this way of growing in hanging sheets 
is in itself a very interesting characteristic, point- 
ing to the use of many beautiful things in circum- 
stances that could not otherwise be dealt with so 
satisfactorily. 

The Rock Pinks and their hybrids are very im- 
portant wall-plants of the hanging class. The hy- 
brids for such use are derived from Dianthns ccesius 
(the Cheddar Pink), D. pluinarius, D. superbus, D. 
fragrans, and possibly others. D. fragrans and its 
double variety are delightful wall-plants; the double 
is that wonderful tiny white Pink whose scent is 
like the quintessence of that of Jasmine ; a scent 
almost too powerful. Seed of these hybrids can be 
had by the name of Hybrid Rock Pinks ; it is easily 
grown and yields interesting varieties, all capital 
wall and rock plants. 

The Rock Pinks are equally happy in a wall in 
sun or shade ; but as we are just now considering 
the plants that will bear the hottest places, among 
the most important, and at the same time the most 
beautiful, will be some of the tender Campanulas 
of Southern Italy, and others that are usually found 
tender or difficult of culture in England. Campanula 
garganica, a native of rocks and walls in that curious 
promontory of Gargano that stands out into the 
Adriatic (the spur on the heel of Italy), is often an 
uncertain plant in our gardens. But planted in a 
cleft in very steep, almost wall-like rock-work, or 
still better in an actual wall in the hottest exposure, 
where it cannot suffer from the moisture that is 



THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 19 

so commonly fatal to it, it will thrive and flower 
abundantly. 

This species, with other Campanulas that are 
absolutely saxatile, should in England always be 
grown in a wall or perpendicular rock-work. The 
same treatment suits C. Raineri, the yellow-flowered 
C. petrcea of the Tyrol, and Campanulas muralis, 
Elatine, elatinoides, excisa, macrorhisa, and mirabilis. 
That the same plan is suitable to C. isophylla may 
be seen by the illustration showing a tuft flowering 
in a wall facing south-west, in a garden thirty-five 
miles south-west of London. 

Places should also be given to the tenderer of the 
Lithospermums, L. Gastoni and L. graniinifolium. 
Graminifolium is a neat bushy-looking plant ; both 
have the flowers of the fine blue colour that is so 
good a character of the genus. In hottest exposures 
in Devon and Cornwall and the Isle of Wight there 
would even be a chance of success with L. rosmarini- 
folium, the "Blue Flower" of the Island of Capri. 
Its colour may be said to be the loveliest blue in 
nature. It has not the violent intensity of the Gen- 
tian, but a quality entirely its own. If one may 
without exaggeration speak of a blue that gives the 
eye perfect happiness, it would be this most perfect 
blue of the lovely Gromwell of the cliffs of Capri. 
But it must have sun and air and full exposure, 
or the colour is wanting in quality, therefore it is 
not a plant for the unheated greenhouse. The easily 
grown L. prostratiim likes a rather cooler place, 
and is more a plant for the rock-garden or for 



20 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

grassy banks. This most useful trailer is not par- 
ticular about soil, though the Lithospermums as 
a genus are lime-loving things. 

Another important race of plants for the hot wall 
are the various kinds of Iberis. All will do well. The 
commonest perennial kind, /. sempervirens, shows 
new beauties in the wall. Still better is the hand- 
somer /. correcefolia, larger both of leaf and flower. 
In the south of England we may also have /. gib- 
raltarica and /. tenoreana, both white, tinted with 
pink or lilac, and /. Pruiti, pure white, all South 
European plants. These are short-lived perennials, 
scarcely more than biennials, but they come well 
from seed which should be sown in the wall ; the 
unmoved seedlings will do much better than any 
transplanted ones. 

Closely allied to the Iberises and capital wall-plants, 
doing well in all soils, but preferring lime, are the 
^thionemas, mostly small neat plants with bluish 
leaves and pretty pink flowers. ^. coridifolium or 
pulckelluniy from Asia Minor, is charming against grey 
stones, while the Syrian ^. grandiflorum is like a 
beautiful little pink-flowered bush. Rabbits are very 
fond of this family of plants, indeed they seem to 
favour the CrucifercE in general. When I first grew 
the ^thionemas, forgetting their relationship to 
Iberis, I put them in a place accessible to rabbits ; 
the rabbit being the better botanist recognised them 
at once, much to my loss. But in the wall they are 
safe. 

The sunny wall is also the true place for the Stone- 




IBERIS AND CERASTIUM IN THE DRY-WALL. 



THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 21 

crops large and small, from the tiny Sedum glaucum 
and the red-tinted 5. Lydium and brittle dasyphyllmrij 
through the many good kinds of moderate size, of 
which pulchellumy kamtschaticum, and Ewersii are im- 
portant, to the large-sized S. spectabile blooming in 
September. Among these, one of the most useful is 
5. spurium in three colourings ; pink, a deeper colour- 
ing near crimson, and a dull white. It is one of the 
easiest plants to grow ; a few little pieces (they 
need scarcely be rooted) will quickly take hold, and 
a year hence make sheets of pretty succulent growth 
smothered with bloom in middle summer. 

The pretty Phloxes of the setacea group are capital 
plants in the hot wall ; in their second and third 
year hanging down in sheets ; the only one that 
does not hang down is the charming pink "Vivid," 
which has a more tufted habit. The free-growing 
P. stellaria, one of the same family, should not be 
forgotten. Its colour, a white tinged with faint 
purple, makes it suitable for accompanying Aubrie- 
tias, which do well both in sun and shade. 

There is a lovely little labiate, Stachys Corsica, 
which is a delightful small plant to grow in level 
joints ; it is not much known, but is desirable as a 
gem for the warm wall. Arnebia echioides is also a 
good wall-plant. 

It will be important that the wall, especially if it is 
of any height, should have a crown of bushy things 
at its top, and not a crown only, for some shrubby 
and half-shrubby plants should come down the face 
here and there to a depth of two or three joints, and 



22 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

occasionally even more. The plants for this use will 
be Cistus and Helianthemuniy Lavender, both the large 
and the dwarf kinds, Rosemary, Phlomis, Santolina 
(Lavender Cotton), Southernwood, Olearia Haastii, 
Eurybia gunniana (hardy only in the south of 
England), Cassinia fulvida, Berberis Aquifolium and 
B. vulgaris (the common Barberry with the beauti- 
ful coral fruits), Scotch Briers, Rosa lucida and Rosa 
wichuriana, and any other beautiful small shrubs, 
preferably evergreen. Also some of the pleasantest 
of the Sweet Herbs, Hyssop and Catmint (beloved 
of cats), both beautiful garden plants, and Rue for 
the sake of its pretty growth and blue leaves. These, 
or rather a few of them at a time, in very carefully 
selected association, would be grouped upon the top 
and a little way down. 

It will have a good effect, if one of these more im- 
portant bush-like plants, in the case of a dry wall from 
eight to ten or more feet high, swept right down with 
a broken or slightly curving diagonal line from top 
to bottom, with some more plants of the same on the 
lower level at the wall's foot. For this use Othon- 
nopsiSf Nepeta, Hyssop, dwarf Lavender, and Santolina 
would be among the best ; Santolina being especially 
valuable, as it is excellent in winter and never untidy 
at any time. 

The neat little Scabiosa Pterocephala must have a 
place ; it is a good plan to have a section of the 
wall devoted mainly to plants of grey foliage ; here 
would be the place for this, in company with Achillea 
unibellata and Artemisia sericea and others of this 




o 
:^ 

to, 

o 

o 
o 

:^ 



THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 23 

warmth-loving genus; and in the grey part of the 
wall there will be Southernwood and Catmint {Nepeta 
Mussini), Hyssop and Lavender Cotton, and the 
curious, almost blue-leaved, Othonnopsis cheirifolia. 
Many of these will be among the plants just named, 
but to make this clear and easy for reference they 
will be put together in the list at the end of the 
chapter. 

The hardy Fuchsias will also be good plants for 
the head and foot of the wall, and the pretty little 
F. pumila for the wall itself. 

There are two of the small St. John's-worts that 
must not be forgotten, Hypericum coris, a perfect gem 
among dwarfer shrub-like plants, and H. repens, its 
exact opposite in habit, for H. coris stands up erect, 
and H. repens hangs straight down like Moneywort in 
a window-box. 

It would be tempting in Cornwall to try the Caper 
plant {Capparis spinosd) and the hardier of the 
Mesembryanthemums that do so well in the Scilly 
Islands ; the best to try would be M. blandwn in its 
two varieties — album and roseum, seldom entirely out 
of bloom ; the straw-coloured M. edule and its hand- 
some crimson-flowered ally, M. rubro-cinctum ; M. 
glaucum, one of the hardiest and finest, with large 
canary-yellow flowers ; and M. deltoides, which forms 
a dense curtain when it is allowed to hang, and fills 
the air in spring with the vanilla-like scent of its small 
but countless pink blossoms. 

With these, and in a part of the wall specially pre- 
pared with rather larger spaces between the stones in 



24 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

the courses, some of the hardy Opuntias would be par- 
ticularly suitable ; they are mentioned more at length 
in the chapters on rock-gardens. Here would also be 
the most suitable place for the Euphorbias. 

Several of the Edraianthus (now better known as 
Wahlenbergia), pretty plants of the Campanula family, 
that are often lost in gardens from winter damp, will 
be safe in the sunny wall. The best will be W. dal- 
matica and W. Pumilio, Another branch of the Cam- 
panulacecB, the Phyteumas, are of special value in the 
wall, and will do nowhere so well. The most usually 
cultivated are P. comosum, P. hemisphcericiim, and P. 
orbiculare. Other pretty plants, also often lost in the 
usual forms of rock-garden, are Acantholimon venustum 
and A. glumaceum ; allied to Thrift. 

Many of these plants are best propagated by fresh 
seed, which can be sown as soon as it ripens in adjoin- 
ing joints and crevices. It should also be remem- 
bered that there are several annuals that can with 
advantage be sown in the wall ; some of the most 
suitable would be Iberis odorata, Saponaria calabrica, 
and Silene pendula, also the little blue Stonecrop 
{Sedum cceruleum). 

The lovely little Petrocallis pyrenaica is a true plant 
for the sunny wall in its upper joints. The larger 
growth of StobcBa purpurea will also suit the top joints 
of the upper courses, or the warm place at the wall- 
foot. It is a thing that will not only do well in such 
places, but that so used will look quite at its best. To 
those who are unacquainted with it it may be described 
as a thistle-like plant with silvery-green spiny foliage 



THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 25 

and leafy stems, and an abundance of pale purplish 
wide-open bloom, large for the size of the plant. 
Most of the Thistles, however handsome in leaf, are 
disappointing in flower. This good plant, on the 
contrary, surprises by the size and quality of its 
bloom. It is not a plant to mix up with other 
things in a border, but exactly right for the hot 
rock-wall, 

Parochetus communis must not be forgotten. It is 
one of the flowers of perfect blue, a delight and surprise 
to see on a little plant that looks like a humble Clover. 
Being a native of Nepaul, it is not always hardy in 
English gardens, but the shelter of the wall will pre- 
serve it in any of our southern districts. 

The foot of the wall will be best if it is not planted 
closely all along, but if occasionally some handsome 
warmth-loving plant is there in a tuft or group. Some 
of the plants most suitable for this place will be 
Acanthus, Iris stylosUy Crinums and Plumbago Lar- 
pentcB, and of smaller plants, Anomatheca cruenta, 
Anemone fulgens, and in the south, Amaryllis Bella- 
donna^ Pancratium illyricum, and Zephryanthes carinata. 
An occasional bush at the wall-foot would also come 
well, such as Rosemary, Cistus lusitanicus, Veronica 
hulkeana, Ozothamnus rosmarini/olius, or Griselinia 
littoralis. 

Wonderful is the pictorial quality of Ivy, and its 
power of assimilation with the forms and surfaces of 
ancient buildings. For a permanent covering of any- 
thing ugly of brick or stone it is also a most helpful 
auxiliary, and though I am just now considering ways 



26 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

of using what are more of the nature of flowering 
plants, the merits of this grand climber must never be 
forgotten. There are often places where such a wall- 
garden as has been described may need some dark 
and quiet background. If at the end of such a scene 
any wall or building returned forward square with the 
wall, here would be the place for Ivy. Indeed there 
are many vast piles of building whose grim severity 
could endure the presence of nothing of a less serious 
character. Thus this great outer wall of the Alhambra, 
towering up in its massive simplicity, could have 
borne no other climbing plant than its one great 
sheet of Ivy. 

Plants for the Sunny Rock-wall 

Cerastium^ Alyssum, Aubrietia, Fuchsia gracilis, Riccartoni, 

Silene, Aral/is, Gypsophila, pumila. 

Saponaria, Dianthus hybs., Hypericum coris, repens. 

D. fragafts, phttttarius, super- Mesembryanihemum blandum, 

bus. (These will hang down.) edule,rubro-cinctum,glaucu?n, 

Campanula garganica, Raineri, deltoides. 

PeircEa, muralis, Elatine, ela- VVahlenbergia dalmatica, Pu- 

linoides, excisa, macrorhisa, milio. 

mirabilis, isophylla. Phyteumacomosion^hemisphceri- 

Lithospertnum Gasioni, gra- cum, orbiculare. 

7ninifolium. Acantholimon glumaceufti, ve- 

Jberis setnperuirens, correcsfolia, nustum. 

tenoreana,gibraltarica, Pruiti. Stachys Corsica. 

ALthionetna coridifolium,grandi- Lavender. 

florum. Santolina. 

Sedutn glaucum, Lydium, dasy- Eurybia gunniana. 

phyllum, pulchelliim, kam- Ilyssopus officinalis. 

tschaticum, spurium, Ewersii, Scabiosa Pterocephala. 

&c. Othonnopsis cheirifolia. 




PEINADOR DE LA REIN A : ALHAMBEA, GRANADA. 




o 
o 

Q 
o 

O 

O 




SAXIFRAGA LONGIFOLIA, [See also p. loo.) ANTIRRHINUM 
GLUTINOSUM, AQUILEGIA JUCUNDA, ERINUS IIIRSUTUS 
IN A LIMESTONE WALL. (See opposite p. loo ) 



THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 



27 



Phlox setacea and vars., P. stel- 

laria. 
Cistiis, Helianthemum and 

vars. 
Berberis Aquifolium, vulgaris. 
Rosa spinoszssima, lucida, wichti- 

riana. 
Olearia Haastii. 
Cassinia fulvida. 
Nepeta Mussini. 



Artemisia sericea. 

Parochetus communis. 

Arnebia echioides. 

Rosmarinum officinale. 

Artemisia Abrotanum. 

Achillea umbellata. 

Petrocallis pyrenaica. 

(By seed) Iberis odoraia, Sapo- 
naria calabrica, Silene pen- 
dula, Sedum caeruleum. 



At the Foot 

Acanthus. 
Crinujft, vars. 
Anomatheca cruenta. 
Amaryllis Belladonna. 
Zephyranthes cari7iata. 
Cistus lusitanicus. 
Ozothamnus rosmarinifolius. 
StoVtea purpurea. 



OF THE Wall 

Iris stylosa. 
Plumbago LarpentcB. 
Anemone fulgens. 
Pancratium illyricum. 
Rosemary. 
Veronica hulkeana. 
Griselitiia littoralis. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 

A DRY wall with a northern or eastern exposure offers 
just as free a field for beautiful planting as one that 
looks towards the sun, and it may be assumed that 
quite two-thirds of the plants advised for the sunny 
wall will flower and do well in the cooler one also, 
while this will have other features distinctly its own. 
For whereas on the sunny side many South European 
species, and members of the sun-loving succulent 
families, will find a suitable home, the cool wall will 
present a series of garden-pictures almost equal in 
number though dissimilar in character. 

What will be most conspicuous in the cool wall will 
be a luxuriant growth of hardy Ferns, both native and 
exotic ; indeed the main character of its furnishing will 
be cool greenery in handsome masses, though flowers 
will be in fair proportion. Here again, if the wall- 
garden is to be seen at its best, and if the plants are to 
be shown as well as possible, it will not do to throw 
together one each of a quantity of kinds, but a fair 
number of two or three kinds at a time should be 
arranged in a kind of ordered informality. No actual 
recipe or instructions can be given for such planting, 
though somewhat of the spirit of it may be appre- 




}-hJOVS AT A NORTHERN WALL-FOOT. 



THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 29 

hended from the diagram at p. 61, in which the groups 
of each kind of plant are represented by the different 
ways of hatching. 

It would be well to get into the way of this kind of 
planting as a general rule, though here and there one 
isolated plant of very distinct character would have 
a good effect. 

At the foot of the wall would be grand tufts of the 
largest of the British Ferns, Male Fern, Lady Fern, 
Harts-tongue, Osmunda, and Shield Fern, and with 
these, handsome foreigners such as Struthiopteris ger- 
manica and several North American kinds. The cool 
pale fronds of Harts-tongue {Scolopendrium), in form 
and texture so unlike most other Ferns, are valuable 
not only for their own sake but for fostering the feel- 
ing of shade and coolness that is the main character 
of this portion of the garden. When established at 
the wall's foot they are of all Ferns the most willing 
to increase by the sowing of their own spores, though 
this can easily be helped by shaking a frond whose 
fructification is mature along some joint where a young 
growth of it is desirable. Be it remembered that 
though most Ferns love a bit of peat. Harts-tongue 
rejoices in a strong loam, also that Polypodiuni cal- 
careum, as its specific name says plainly, will be thank- 
ful for lime. The little Ruta inuraria is also a lime 
lover. The common Polypody is hardly ever so hand- 
some as in a cool wall, while its relatives the Oak and 
Beech Ferns will be quite at home in wide joints. 

If a specially cool and moist spot is noticed while 
the wall is building it will be well to leave out a block 



30 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

or two in a couple of courses, and to form a little Fern 
cave for the delicate Filmy Ferns {Hymenopkyllum), 
and if the garden should be near the sea on our south 
coast there would be a chance of success with the Sea 
Spleenwort {Asplenium marinum) planted in a deep 
joint. 

The delicately beautiful Cystopteris, in several kinds, 
will be some of the best things in the wall, also the 
dainty little Woodsias. The difficult Holly- Fern will 
do well in a deep horizontal wall joint, and Parsley 
Fern {Allosorus) will be contented with a cool cleft if 
liberally fed with chips of slate. 

The wide family of Saxifrages will be largely re- 
presented in the cool rock-wall. This is a group of 
plants that presents so many different forms that it 
is one of the most puzzling to amateurs, but it is much 
simplified, if, putting aside some of its outlying 
members, one thinks of it in its relation to the wall 
as mainly of three kinds ; the London Pride, the 
mossy, and the silvery or encrusted kinds. Every- 
body knows London Pride {Saxifraga umhrosum) as 
a pretty plant in garden edgings and for ordinary 
rock-garden use, but I doubt if it is ever so charming 
as when grown in the cool wall, when its dainty 
clouds of pink bloom are seen puffing out from among 
Fern-frond masses. Then, once seen, it is easy to 
recognise the Mossy Saxifrages, of which 5. hypnoides 
of our northern mountains is the best known. Then 
no one who has once seen any examples of the 
silvery or encrusted Saxifrages, with their stiff, mostly 
strap-shaped leaves bearing along their saw-like edges 




5 

Oh 



THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 31 

that miracle of adornment of limy incrustation, could 
fail to recognise the others of this branch of the 
family. Most of them thrive in calcareous soil. They 
vary in size from the tiny 5. ccssia to the large 
S. longifolia, whose huge rosette, so well shown in 
the illustration at p. 27, is followed by a great panicle 
of creamy white flower sometimes two feet long 
(see p. 100). No plant, except perhaps Ramondia, is 
more grateful for the upright position. 

The Mossy Saxifrages may be at once recognised 
by their mossy appearance. They are for joints near 
the bottom and the foot of the wall. The close mossy 
form seems to open out and stiffen as it leads to 
the handsome S. Camposi and to 5. ceratophylla and 
others of this intermediate class. Another section of 
the Saxifrages, somewhat mossy in appearance though 
not classed with them, are 6". burseriana and 5. juni- 
perina. They are the earliest to bloom, the flowers 
opening in February; large and pure white, in 
striking contrast to the close thick tufts of dark 
green foliage. Others of the smaller Saxifrages that 
will find a place in the wall are the yellow-flowered 
5. sancta, not unlike the last as to its leafy tuft; 
5. oppositifolia, forming spreading or hanging sheets 
with red-purple bloom ; and the double-flowered form 
of the native 5. granulata. S. Cymbalaria is an 
annual that will always sow itself ; the seedlings are 
bright and pretty through the depth of winter. 
Several of these Saxifrages, such as 5. longifolia, will 
do well on the warm wall also, but they are better 
seen and enjoyed on the cool one. 



32 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

In an important position in the cool wall will be 
a good planting of Ramondia pyrenaica. This ex- 
cellent plant cannot be too highly estimated. Its 
home in nature is in cool clefts in mountain gorges, 
where it constantly receives the mountain mists or 
the spray of the torrent. It is best in the lower part 
of the wall, but if the wall is of fair height and 
backed by a cool mass of earth, it is well to have 
it on the eye level. Near it should be a plant of 
the same family, Haberlea rhodopensis, smooth-leaved, 
and with much the same habit of growth and yet of 
quite different appearance. 

The wall will give an opportunity for succeeding 
with many Alpine Primulas, some of them difficult 
in ordinary rock cultivation. Alpine Auriculas and 
any garden Primroses will be charming in some of 
the lower joints, and the lovely P. Monroi, or more 
properly P. involucrata, one of the most dainty of its 
family, will here do well. Others worth growing in 
the wall will be P. Allionii, P . glutinosa^ P. marginata, 
P, nivalis^ and P. viscosa. 

The beautiful Androsaces, good alike in sun and 
shade, will have their place in the wall. The Hima- 
layan A. lanuginosa seems to be one of the most 
willing to grow in English gardens, where its silky 
rosettes of foliage and pretty heads of pink flowers 
will fall over the face of the rocks, clothing them in 
a charming manner (see p. 94). A. Laggeri of the 
Pyrenees and A. carnea and A. chamcejasme of the Swiss 
and Austrian Alps should also have a place. 

Anemone apennina should be planted in the lower 




SMILACINA BIFOLIA. {One-third life size.) 



THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 33 

joints and also Anemone sylvestris^ while A. hepatica 
is never so well pleased as when its roots are close to 
or among stones. 

Snapdragons are grand wall-plants, both in sun 
and shade. I think the tender colourings, white, 
yellow, and pinkish, are the most suitable for the 
cool exposure, and the fine dark crimson reds and 
mixed colourings for the warm one. 

The many kinds of Houseleek {Sempervivmn) are 
perhaps better suited for joints in the warmer side of 
the wall and warm spaces in the rock-garden, though 
many will thrive in the cool wall. 

Many a plant that one would scarcely have thought 
of putting in the wall will come there of its own will. 
Such a lesson I learnt many a year ago from the 
pretty little Smilacina bifolia, which is by nature a 
woodland plant. I had put some on the top of a 
piece of dry-walling facing north, to fill the space 
temporarily while some Andromedas were growing 
that were to crown the wall-top. The little plant 
grew downward into the chink as the picture shows 
and then spread along the next lower course, mak- 
ing itself quite at home. 

Two of the Acaenas will be welcome, namely, 
A. microphylla and A. pulchella. The first is the one 
most commonly grown, but A. pulchella has merit, not 
only on account of the pretty form of the delicately- 
cut leaves, but from their unusual bronze colouring. 
In the wall also one can more easily escape their 
burrs, which are always too ready to catch hold of 
clothing. 



34 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

Moneywort {Lysimachia numniularid) will be beauti- 
ful hanging clown among the Ferns, and associated 
•wlih. Cory dalis capnoides. Waldsteinia fragoides^v^Wh its 
bright yellow bloom and brightly polished leaves, must 
not be forgotten. 

Campanula, that large genus that yields species of 
the highest beauty for nearly every kind of gardening, 
will be represented by several ; by C. carpatica and 
C. turbinata, as good in shade as in sun, by the tallest 
of all, C. pyramidalisy a grand wall-plant in the milder 
parts of our climate, and by the handsome C. lati- 
folia (best in the white form) and by some of the 
smaller kinds, which will include C. pusilla and the 
lovely dwarf C. ccespiiosa, both pale blue and white. 
They run along the joints, throwing up their little 
bells in such quantities that they jostle one another 
and are almost overcrowded. The branch of the 
same family detached under the name of Syniphy- 
andra contains some charming flowers that thrive 
in such a place as the cool dry wall, vS". pendula doing 
well ; here also 5. Hoffmanni would be at home. 

Arenaria balearica is described elsewhere as a capital 
cool wall-plant, growing up from below ; not only 
rooting in the joints but clothing the whole face of 
the stones with a kind of close skin of its tiny stalk 
and leaf, so that every stony hollow and projection 
can be clearly traced through it. A. montana has 
larger flowers and a different way of growth, but it 
is a good plant for the wall. 

Two little plants of neat growth and small white 
bloom should have a place — Hutchinsia alpina and 




s 




s 



THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 35 

Cardamine trifoliata. They suit admirably as com- 
panions to some of the smaller Ferns. The Double 
Cuckoo-flower {Cardamine pratensis) is an excellent 
wall-plant. 

The accommodating Cruciferce, Arabis, Alyssum, 
and Aubrietia will flower just as freely in the cool as 
in the warm wall, also the Wallflowers, whether the 
garden kinds or the species. 

An autumn sowing of lonopsidium acaule will give 
next season a good crop of this charming little plant. 
Linaria alpina can also be sown, and Erinus alpinuSy 
which seems willing to grow in any position. Garden 
Primroses and Anemones are thankful for a place 
at the cool wall-foot. 

Plants for the Rock-wall in Shade 

Ferns, native and foreign. Lysiniachia nummularia 
Saxifrages. (Moneywort). 

Ramondia pyrenaica. Corydalis capnoides. 

Alpine Auriculas. Waldsteinia fragoides. 

Primula involucrata, Allionii, Campanula carpatica, iurbinaia, 

gluiinosa, marginata^ nivalis^ pyramidalis, latifolia^ pu- 

viscosa. silla, ccBspiiosa. 

Androsace lanuginosa^ carnea^ Sytnphyandra pendula, Hoff- 

chamcBJasme, Laggeri. m,anni. 

Anemone appenina, sylvestris^ Arenaria balearica, montana. 

Hepatica. Hutchinsia alpitia. 

Antirrhinutn majus (Snap- Cardamine trifoliata. 

dragon). Cardamine pratensis Jl. pi. 

Sempervivum, in variety. lonopsidium acaule (seed). 

Smilacina bifolia. Linaria alpina (seed). 
Accena microphylla^ pulchella. 



CHAPTER V 

NATIVE PLANTS IN THE ROCK- WALL 

When a wall-garden has been established for some 
years one may expect all kinds of delightful surprises, 
for wind-blown seeds will settle in the joints and there 
will spring up thriving tufts of many a garden plant, 
perhaps of the most unlikely kind. Foxgloves, plants 
that in one's mind are associated with cool, woody 
hollows, may suddenly appear in a sunny wall, so may 
also the great garden Mulleins. When this happens, 
and the roots travel back and find the coolness of the 
stone, the plants show astonishing vigour. I had some 
Mulleins ( Verbascum phlomoides) that appeared self- 
sown in a south-west wall ; they towered up to a 
height of over nine feet, and were finer than any 
others in the garden ; while everything that is planted 
or that sows itself in the wall seems to acquire quite 
exceptional vigour. 

It sometimes happens also that some common native 
plant comes up in the wall so strongly and flowers so 
charmingly that one lets it be and is thankful. The 
illustration shows a case of this where the wild Stitch- 
wort {Stellaria Holosted) appeared in the wall and was 
welcomed as a beautiful and desirable plant. Close to 

this tuft, which has now for five years been one of the 

36 




STITCH WORT IN A ROCK-WALL. WELSH POPPY AND HART'S- 
TONGUE FERN AT FOOT. 




CORY DA us LUTE A. 



NATIVE PLANTS IN ROCK-WALL 37 

best things in the place at its own flowering-time, is a 
colony, also spontaneous, of the Shining Cranesbill 
{Geranium lucidum), whose glistening, roundish, five- 
lobed leaves turn almost scarlet towards the end of 
summer. These are both common hedge-weeds, but 
so dainty is their structure and kind of beauty that we 
often pass them by among the coarser herbage of the 
country lanes and hedges, and only find that they are 
worthy garden plants when we have them more quietly 
to ourselves in the rock-wall. There are other wild 
plants that are also worthy of wall space. The Wall 
Pennywort {Cotyledon Umbilicus), so common in the 
south-west of England, is a precious plant, and is 
especially happy in combination with hardy Ferns. 
Linaria Cymbalaria is a gem in a rough wall, and, 
though a doubtful native, is so generally found as 
a wild wall-plant that it takes its place in books 
of British botany. The yellow Toadflax {Linaria 
vulgaris) is also a grand wall-plant, and so is the 
yellow Corydalis {C. lutea), though the paler flowered 
and more daintily leaved C. capnoides, also known 
as C. ochroleuca, is a better plant ; just a good shade 
more delicate and more beautiful throughout. In 
considering the best of the native plants for wall- 
gardening, the Welsh Poppy {Meconopsis cambrica) 
must not be forgotten ; its place is at the foot 
of a wall, and in its lower courses among Ferns. 
Nearly all the British Ferns can be grown in walls, 
many of them acquiring great luxuriance. As nearly 
all are plants that love shade and coolness and 
some degree of moisture, they should be in walls 



38 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

that face east or north ; the larger kinds in the 
lower joints and quite at the foot, and many of 
the smaller ones in the upper joints. The Common 
Polypody runs freely along the joints, and the 
shelter preserves the fronds from winter injury, so 
that often, when severe weather kills the wild ones 
in the lanes and hedges, those that have the pro- 
tection of the wall will carry their fronds, as will 
also the Harts-tongue, green and perfect through- 
out the winter. 

It would be well worth having a bit of cool wall 
for British plants and Ferns alone ; its beauty would 
scarcely be less than that of a wall planted with 
exotics. 

There are two small English Ferns that do not 
object to a dry and sunny place, namely, Aspleniinn 
Ruta-muraria and Aspleniuin Trichomanes. They 
seem to be fond of the lime in the joints of old 
mortar-jointed walls, and able to endure almost any 
amount of sunshine. Of the other English plants 
that like warm wall-treatment three come at once 
to mind ; all of them plants so good that for 
hundreds of years they have been cultivated in 
gardens. These are Thrift, Wallflower, and Red 
Valerian. In a sunny wall all these will be at 
home. Wallflowers never look so well as in a wall, 
where air and light is all around them and where 
they grow sturdy and stocky, and full of vigour. 
Compare a close-growing, bushy Wallflower in a 
wall, with its short-jointed, almost woody stem, 
stout and unmoved in a gale of wind, with one 




RED VALERIAN [CENTRANTHUS) IN AN OLD CASTLE WALL. 



NATIVE PLANTS IN ROCK-WALL 39 

planted out in a bed. The garden-nurtured plant 
will be a foot and a half or two feet high, and its 
large heavy head will be beaten about and twisted 
by the wind till it has worked a funnel-shaped hole 
in the ground, and is perhaps laid flat. Thrift, 
that lovely little plant of rocky seashore and wind- 
blown mountain top, is indispensable in all rock 
and wall gardening, neat and well clothed all 
through the year, and in summer thickly set with 
its flower-heads of low-toned pink. It loves in 
nature to grow along rocky cracks, sending its long 
neck and root far down among the stones. There 
is a garden form with bright green leaves and 
darker coloured flowers, but, though it is un- 
doubtedly a more showy plant it is scarcely an 
improvement on the type ; much of the charm is 
lost. 

The Red Valerian {Centranthus ruber) is a chalk- 
loving plant ; it will grow in ordinary soil, but is 
thankful for lime in some form. In this, the garden 
form of deeper colour is a better plant than the type ; 
the colour in this case being deepened to a good 
crimson. Another British plant of the chalk that will 
also be handsome in the rock-wall is the fine blue- 
flowered Gromwell {Lithospermum purpuro-cceruleuni) ; 
it throws out long runners like a Periwinkle that 
root at the tips. They seem to feel about over the 
surface of the wall till they come to a joint where 
they can root. 

Two of the British wild Pinks, namely, Dianthus 
cmius and D. deltoides, are among the best of plants 



40 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

for a sunny wall ; and another, not exactly showy but 
neat and shrub-like and of considerable interest, well 
worthy of a warm place, is the Wood Sage {Teucrium 
Scorodonid). 

Another charming wild plant for sunny joints and 
places on a level with the eye, or for such wall-tops as 
would be only as high as eye level, is the Sheep's 
Scabious {Jasione montana) ; neat and pretty, and 
worthy of cultivation on wall or dry rock-garden, 
where the little plants, each with its large flower- 
head, can be grouped rather more closely than in the 
heathy wastes where they are generally in a thin 
sprinkle among short grass. Another plant for wall- 
top, growing willingly in any soil though preferring 
lime, is the yellow Rock Rose {Helianthemum vulgare), 
common on sunny banks in chalk districts, and one 
of the few species (the others rare or local) that 
are the representatives of the large Cistus tribe of 
Southern Europe. One more chalk-loving plant 
should also be in the sunny wall. Reseda luteUy the 
Wild Mignonette ; tall, graceful, and sweet scented. 
It is best sown in the wall if seed can be obtained. 

There are still some native plants for the warm wall 
of the succulent class. The Houseleek, so frequent on 
the roof of the cottage outhouse ; the tall and stout 
Sedum Telephiuvi^ the Live- Long of old English 
naming (for a spray of it in a room without water 
will live a month almost unchanged) ; and the smaller 
Stonecrops, ^. anglicum, S. album, and 6". acre. 

There are still to be named for a wild wall in a cool 
shady place some of our small wood plants ; indeed, 




^6 ' 



NATIVE PLANTS IN ROCK-WALL 41 

they seem never happier than when they become 
estabHshed in the wall joints and chinks. Snch a one 
is the Wood Sorrel, one of the daintiest of spring 
flowers, whether in wall, garden or wild. Primroses 
also take kindly to the lower joints on the shady side, 
and the cool wall-foot is the place of all others for one 
of the native Irises, /. fcetidissimaj whose dark green 
sword -like leaves are good to see throughout the 
winter, while in October the seed-pods are opening 
and showing the handsome orange-scarlet fruit. 

Then the Purple Columbine is a grand cool wall- 
plant ; the delicate yellow-flowered Wood Pimpernel 
{Lysimachia nemorum) will trail happily in some lower 
joints ; the larger Moneywort is one of the best of 
wall draperies ; and even two moisture-loving small 
things, the Moschatel {Adoxa) and the Golden Saxi- 
frage {Chrysosplenimti) will be satisfied with the cool- 
ness of the lowest joints and the comfort of the mossy 
wall-foot. 



CHAPTER VI 

TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 

A GRAND old wall is a precious thing in a garden, and 
many are the ways of treating it. If it is an ancient 
wall of great thickness, built at a time when neither 
work was shirked nor material stinted, even if many 
of the joints are empty, the old stone or brick stands 
firmly bonded, and, already two or three hundred 
years of age, seems likely to endure well into the 
future centuries. In such a wall wild plants will 
already have made themselves at home, and we may 
only have to put a little earth and a small plant into 
some cavity, or earth and seed into a narrow open 
joint, to be sure of a good reward. Often grasses and 
weeds, rooting in the hollow places, can be raked out 
and their spaces refilled with better things. When 
wild things grow in walls they always dispose them- 
selves in good groups ; such groups as without their 
guidance it would have been difficult to devise inten- 
tionally. 

So if one had to replant the old moat wall how 
pleasant a task it would be to rake out the grasses and 
wild Lettuce and other undesirables, saving the pretty 
little pale lemon Hawkweed and the Ivy-leaved Toad- 
flax and the growth of flags by the culvert, and re- 



TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 43 

placing the weeds with just a few of the plants that 
might occur in such a place ; among others Wallflower 
and Red Valerian and the native Stonecrops. In such 
a wall, which is outside the garden, and seems rather 
to belong to the park, it would be suitable to use 
these good native plants rather than exotics, such as 
would find a more fitting home within garden ground. 
A half-double rambling Rose planted inside, and a 
wild Clematis, both ramping and bounding over, and 
hanging half-way down to the water, would also make 
a pleasant break in the long line of the balustrade. 

In the further portion of the same moat, in the 
picture showing the roof and window of the tea-house 
and the Lombardy Poplars, the lower wall is the con- 
tinuation of the same, but here it is more within 
garden ground. The upper wall is the retaining wall 
of the raised bowling-green, and, but that in this case 
the wall is mostly used for fruit trees, would be a per- 
fect place for many a little sun-loving rock-plant of 
Southern Europe ; for here is that cool backing of the 
mass of earth and that exposure to fullest sunshine 
that afford the surest prospect of success with such 
plants. It is to be hoped that this tempting double 
terrace, which seems only to invite the careful minis- 
trations of the sympathetic gardener, may some day 
be worthily taken in hand. 

The double terrace always offers special opportuni- 
ties for good gardening, for whereas the single line of 
abrupt change of level, unless treated with some bold- 
ness, may in certain aspects have a thin and meagre 
appearance ; where it is doubled, there is an oppor- 



44 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

tunity of treating the two terraces in a much larger 
way horticulturally, while equally preserving their 
architectural value. 

This richness of effect is plainly seen in the fine 
example illustrated, though it is open to question 
whether it would not have been better still had the 
upper wall been carried solid to the height of the 
coping of the balustrade, or even higher, and the 
upper ground levelled up to it. 

But there are fine things in this piece of gardening. 
It shows plainly the salutary effect of rambUng 
growths partly veiling the balustrade, and even of tall 
things of the Cypress class doing the same work, 
though this came possibly as a happy accident ; such 
another accident as those that are of so high a value 
in the tree and shrub overgrowths of the old gardens 
of Italy. The defect of arrangement in this picture is 
a certain monotonous repetition of Gyneriums alter- 
nating with Yuccas in the lower border. Here would 
have been a grand place for grouping the Yuccas as 
described in the chapter on the Rock-wall in Sun. 

One can hardly imagine a more perfect site for a 
garden than a place where such an arrangement as 
this would be reversed on the further side of the lawn, 
so that there would be a range of double terrace on 
the shady side as well as on the sunny. Where new 
gardens are being made, such a disposition of the 
ground is well worth considering, for in many sites 
where ground comes awkwardly with regard to a 
house — sometimes sloping away diagonally — such a 
garden could be laid out. 




:^-iimti-"T-fi^ii-"ftrrrVffff1 



uLD L,AklJt:.\ HALL ENCLOSING A SHRUB GARDEN 
OR WILDERNESS. 



TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 45 

Many a good old garden, not of the earlier times 
but dating from the latter half of the eighteenth 
century, has a large space of pleasure ground within 
walls. When these were planted, wire-netting, that 
temptingly cheap and useful abomination, had not 
been invented, iron was a costly commodity, and if 
the pleasant home grounds were to be given a 
more permanent fence against deer and cattle than a 
wooden one, it must needs be a wall. Here is such 
a wall, broken only by the tall piers of masonry 
and well-wrought iron gates that lead from the 
seclusion of the shady garden to the outer world. 
Where there are fairly long stretches of such walls the 
artist gardener has good scope for arranging large 
effects ; for doing something thoroughly well and 
just sufficiently, and then passing on to some other 
desirable possibility ; for making pictures for all the 
seasons in just such well-considered progression, and 
just such degree of change or variety as will be most 
pleasant and delightful to see. 

Good walls often have their opportunities wasted. 
There is generally the usual planting of one each of 
one thing after another, a wearisome monotony of 
variety — a sort of exhibition of samples. Where there 
is little wall-space this may be a kind of necessity, but 
in these old gardens where the bounding walls run on 
for many hundred yards, there is no need for any 
such planting. 

Thus one may plant in imagination a long stretch 
of such wall, beginning at one of the gateways. If 
the piers are well designed, the first consideration 



46 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

will be not to let them be smothered by the climbing 
plants. One of the many beautiful Ivies, not the 
common Irish nor any other of the larger leaved 
ones, but such a lovely thing as the dainty Caenwood 
variety, is just the thing for the piers, and even this 
must be watched and perhaps thinned and suitably 
restrained every year or two. Next to it and partly 
growing among it, and climbing up one pier, a 
Clematis Flatmnula will do well ; its delicate clouds 
of bloom lovely in September. Then would come 
some darker bushes, Choisyay Bay, or Laurustinus, 
and next beyond them something totally different ; 
some pale pink Tree Paeonies grouped with Laven- 
der, and on the wall with this group, which would 
be a longish one, the beautiful May-flowering Clema- 
tis Montana, not stiffly trained, but only fastened to 
the wall here and there, when its blooming masses 
will cling together and hang in grand garlands wide- 
swung from point to point ; some hanging low so 
that they are in close association with the Pceonies, 
when one of the year's best flower-pictures will be 
to be seen. 

Then we will have some garden Roses. The white 
Rose {R. alba), single and double, and Maiden's 
Blush — they are not climbing Roses, but such as 
will rise to this wall's height ; at their foot will be 
more Lavender, and among it bushes of Cabbage 
Rose and of Damask and the striped Cottage Maid, 
perhaps more commonly known as York and Lan- 
caster, a name which, however, belongs of right to 
a different Rose of rather the same class. Then we 



TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 47 

would have a good stretch of white Jasmine, sweetest 
of late summer flowers. 

Following this there should be a good length of 
Guelder Rose, delightful as wall clothing in addition 
to its usual business as a flowering bush in the open, 
and at its foot and flowering at the same season 
will be great clumps of the old crimson Paeony. 
As for Roses, their uses are endless, but for such 
a wall as this the best will be the free-growing Ayr- 
shires. If any hybrid perpetuals are to have a 
place they had better be some of the older ones, 
not now admitted at shows, but such as are often 
found in old gardens growing on their own roots, 
and sometimes of great age. They are of the highest 
value in the garden as the picture well shows. Such 
a Rose, though not the one shown, whose name is 
lost, is Anna Alexieff ; this would be trained free at 
full length upon the wall — it is not a climber but 
a free grower — and a group of the same at the 
foot would be pruned into loose bush form and 
grouped with the ever-charming Madame Plantier. 
This combination of pink and white good garden 
Roses is delightful. One or two Rosemary bushes 
would be among these, and then a thicker group of 
Rosemary, some of it trained to the wall. And so 
on for a good way, with Rosemary and any of the 
garden Roses that we may love best, and on the wall 
old favourites like Blairii No. 2, Climbing Captain 
Christy, and Climbing Aimee Vibert. 

Two hundred yards of wall would soon be covered 
with even this limited choice of kinds, and then it 



48 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

would be time to change the character of the plant- 
ing, though perhaps still within the Rose family, so 
that next we might have that pretty thornless Tree 
Bramble Rubus deliciosus, and below it some of the 
other unarmed Brambles, the rosy R. odoratus and 
the white R. nutkanus. Then there might come a 
stretch of wall for winter bloom ; the yellow Winter 
Jasmine (/. nudifloruni) and Winter Sweet {Chimon- 
anthus fragrans) and Garrya elliptica ; the evergreen 
branches of the Garrya partly protecting the naked 
bloom of the Chimonanthus. 

These are only a few of the combinations that 
might be made ; while long lengths of wall may 
well be given to Vines, with Lilies and Irises at their 
foot, and with here and there a thin climber such 
as one of the large-flowered Clematises, or Rhodo- 
chiton volubile, to run among their branches. For 
gate-piers of wrought stone that are in still more 
dressed ground nothing is more suitable than that 
splendid climber, the best form of Bignonia radicans, 
but it is too tender for the cold midlands. 

When a garden prospect embraces the view of an 
ancient building it seems to reduce the range of choice 
to within much narrower limits. In the garden shown 
in the picture this has evidently been felt, in that here 
is a good planting of the June-flowering Paeonies and 
nothing much else. Had it suited the other needs of 
the garden as well, it might have been even better to 
have planted large masses of sober greenery, as of Yew 
and Box, with no other flowers than some bold clumps 
of white Lilies and a few bushes of white Roses, and 




RUBUS DELICIOSUS. 



TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 49 

perhaps some Rosemary and China Rose or some 
other old garden Rose of tender pink colouring. But 
the bold forms of the flower and the important leafage 
of the Paeonies are good here also ; the only thing 
that is unworthy of the scheme being the small row 
of Pansies next the grass. It would have been better 
to let the Paeonies bush over the edge of the grass ; 
the row of small flowers is a petty intrusive incident 
in a scene where nothing should sound any note that 
jars upon the harmony of noble ancient building and 
simple dignity of garden practice. 

The gardener may represent that, when masses of 
foliage of large herbaceous plant or shrub hang over 
the grass, it is difficult to mow to the edge — and 
to a certain degree he is right. It is undoubtedly 
easier to run the machine along a clearly defined and 
unobstructed edge. But if the gardener is the good 
fellow that he generally is he will at once understand 
that this is just one of the points that makes the differ- 
ence between the best and most careful and thought- 
ful gardening, and gardening that is ease-loving and 
commonplace. In the case of such edges, instead of 
a man and a boy with a mowing-machine the man has 
a scythe and the boy has a bean-pole. Boy and man 
face each other a few paces apart, the boy moves back- 
ward, lifting the foHage with his pole, while the man 
advances mowing under the held-up leaves. There is 
nothing in it that the plainest labourer cannot under- 
stand, while the added refinement that is secured is 
a distinct gain to the garden. It is only where the 

D 



so WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

labour allowed is already insufficient that the gar- 
dener's plea should be allowed. 

Nothing is more frequently to be seen, even in quite 
good and well-manned gardens, than this tyranny of 
the turf-edge. The same thing appears in the picture 
of the bowling-green of a fine old Surrey house ; the 
straight edge, which is right against the path, cutting 
much too harshly against the front of the flower 
border. 

The illustration of another flower border in the 
same good garden as the one with the Paeonies, where 
all things seem to be so well done that there is little 
that can be criticised, shows the better way of letting 
the plants lap over the broad grass verge. Here is a 
wall about twelve feet high, with a noble flower border 
at its foot. Already it has an old growth of Ivy, while 
the young Magnolia .towards the front, when it 
has had a few more years of growth, will repeat the 
mass of deep green foliage. Then its own great leaves 
will just suggest that larger scale of permanent foliage 
that will better suit the height of the wall. Wisely has 
the border been planted with just the very best things ; 
with Delphinium and white Lilies in generous masses, 
and bold groups of Flag-leaved Irises and bountiful 
clumps of Pinks. When the Roses on the wall have 
come to their strength and the Pillar Roses have 
covered their poles, this flower border will be a fine 
example of good hardy gardening. 












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CHAPTER VII 

TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS {continued) 

To any one who has both practised and studied garden- 
ing for a number of years, and has at last acquired a 
glimmering of illumination as to what is best to be 
done in the many circumstances presented by various 
sites, it is immensely instructive to see gardens or even 
to see pictures of them. Perhaps the pictures are 
even the best, if there are enough of one place to give 
an idea of all its portions, or if there are several illus- 
trations of some important feature. In the black and 
white presentment of a scene, that can be held in the 
hand and examined quietly and at leisure, without the 
distractions of brilliant sunshine or colour, or wind or 
rain, or the company of one's fellow-creatures (how- 
ever charming and sympathetic they may be), the 
merits of the scene can be very fairly judged. It may 
therefore be useful to make a few remarks on a de- 
finite piece of gardening ; an important wall-garden in a 
fine place in Somersetshire. The four pictures give an 
accurate idea of the steeply terraced garden. The first 
shows both terraces, with a glimpse of the walk on the 
third or lowest level, and the still steeply sloping grass 
below. The next two pictures show the middle level, 

looking both ways from nearly midway in its length. 

51 



52 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

The upper terrace shows not unskilful manage- 
ment of a rather abrupt transition from the wooded 
slope to pure formality by a nearly symmetrical line 
of evergreens. Next comes a grand retaining wall, 
buttressed at short intervals and planted with good 
wall-shrubs. The wall rises enough to form a parapet 
to the upper terrace. The point where each buttress 
rises and gives occasion to widen the coping above, 
is accentuated by an American Aloe in a pot. The 
pots are of plain flower-pot shape and look a little 
too plain for this use, although the character of the 
walling does not demand vases highly enriched. 

The weakest point in the middle terrace is the 
poverty of scheme in the succession of small square 
beds that break forward in each bay between the 
piers, and that seem to be planted without any general 
design or distinct intention, but with stiff little edg- 
ings showing an outer margin of bare earth. This 
would be much improved by putting all the beds 
together as to the space nearest the wall ; and next 
the grass, by leaving the length of the front edge 
of two beds and the interval between them, and in 
the space represented by the front of the third, swing- 
ing the front line back in an arc (not a whole semi- 
circle but something shallower), in the centre of 
which the pot plants would stand ; then continuing 
the treatment with the next pair of beds, followed 
by the segmental swing-back, and so on throughout. 
Moreover, the front line of the beds comes too far 
forward into the grass by about one-fourth of its 
projection, taken from the line of the front of the 




A TERRACED GARDEN ON A STEEP SOUTHERN SLOPE. {No. i.) 




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LOWER TERRACE. {No. 4.] 



TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 53 

buttresses. The proportion would be much better 
with a greater width of grass and a lesser width of 
flowers. 

The little fountain basin would then make a re- 
versed figure in one of the arcs, and the planting on 
each side of it would be symmetrical and rather 
important. Such a rearrangement of the beds would 
much improve this terrace ; and would give the wall 
added dignity and offer more scope for the growing 
of handsome groups of plants. 

The Yew hedge which forms the parapet of this 
terrace and stands just at the top of the lowest wall 
is a capital example of its kind, though the garden 
would have given a better impression of cohesion 
if the wall had been treated in the same way as the 
one above. But the planting at its base seems in 
these more horticulturally enlightened days to be 
quite indefensible. The foot of one of the noblest 
ranges of terrace walls in England is too good to be 
given over to the most commonplace forms of bed- 
ding, whereas it presents the best and most becom- 
ing site for some of the noblest of plants ; for Mag- 
nolia and Bignonia, Yucca, Carpenteria, Choisya, and 
Rotnneya. Here it would be better to have a much 
narrower border against the wall, about half the width 
of the present one, and to take some advantage of 
the open joints in the upper courses for the planting 
of some of the lovely things named in the chapter 
on the Sunny Rock -wall. 

Perhaps I should offer some apology to the owners 
of this fine garden for my presumption in making 



54 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

it an object-lesson ; but the many evidences of good 
gardening it displays seem an encouragement to the 
making of friendly criticism. It is already so good 
that it is tempting to contemplate how such a com- 
bination of pleasant conditions could be made even 
better or be differently treated. 

Where there is beautiful architectural proportion 
and enriched detail, as in the example of the portion 
of a fine old Tudor house shovi^n in the illustration, 
it is obvious that it would be most unwise to let it 
be over-run with coarse or common creepers. In 
this case there is evidence of watchful restraint ; the 
climbing plants are just enough to clothe sufficiently, 
while none of the beauty of the building is unduly 
smothered. 

The whole question of the relation of vegetation to 
architecture is a very large one, and to know what to 
place where, and when to stop, and when to abstain 
altogether, requires much knowledge on both sides. 
The horticulturist generally errs in putting his plants 
and shrubs and climbers everywhere, and in not even 
discriminating between the relative fitness of any two 
plants whose respective right use may be quite differ- 
ent and perhaps even arltagonistic. The architect, 
on the other hand, is often wanting in sympathy with 
beautiful vegetation. The truth appears to be that 
for the best building and planting, where both these 
crafts must meet and overlap and work together, the 
architect and the gardener must have some knowledge 
of each other's business, and each must regard with 




^ 



RESTRAINED USE OF CREEPERS ON AN OLD HOUSE THAT HAS 
BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS. 




to 

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to 



TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 55 

feelings of kindly reverence the unknown domains 
of the other's higher knowledge. By the gardener 
is not meant the resident servant, but the person, 
whoever it mfty be, who works with or directly 
after the architect in planning the planting. 

The terraces just described have so little of special 
architectural design that they may be considered as 
belonging entirely to the garden, so that there is no 
reason why they may not be treated with absolute 
freedom. 

One of the careful gardener's duties is to watch, 
not the growth only, but the overgrowth of plants, 
trees, and shrubs. In many a garden some over- 
growth of shrub or tree may be of the highest 
pictorial value. Sometimes wild plants will come in 
stonework and come just right, or seeds of garden 
plants will find lodgment in a crack or joint of 
masonry, and provide some new or attractive feature 
that had never been thought of. Often Ferns and 
small wild things will grow in the joints of walls and 
steps on any cool exposure. It is well worth while 
to notice the willingness of plants to grow in such 
places, and to encourage or restrain as may be need- 
ful. In the wide stone steps of the Gloucestershire 
house with the pedimented doorway are some seed- 
ling plants of several ages of the handsome white 
Chimney Campanula {C. pyramidalis) ; it also grows 
spontaneously in the wall of a shallow area to the 
basement of the same building. In these steps the 
growth of this and other plants has been encouraged. 
They are perhaps rather more scattered all over the 



56 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

steps than is desirable. The sentiment conveyed by a 
shallow flight is one of welcome and easy access, and 
it is best that no plants should be allowed to invade 
the middle space, or at any rate none so large that 
they rise to the height of a single step. But the 
presence of such plants gives a keen delight to the 
flower lover, even though his sympathies with archi- 
tecture may tell him that for plants to be in such 
a place is technically wrong. This picture calls to 
mind the story of how the common Harebell {Cam- 
panula rotundifolid) is said to have come by the 
specific name that seems so little descriptive of the 
very narrow leaves of the flower-stalks, though the 
less noticeable root leaves are roundish. It is said that 
Linnaeus observed it as a little round-leaved plant, 
growing in the joints of the steps of the University 
of Upsala, and named it from its rounded foliage of 
winter and spring. 

The Ivy-leaved Toadflax is a charming plant in the 
joints of steps, and so are some of the smaller Cam- 
panulas, such as ccespitosa and pusilla, and even some 
rather larger kinds, as turbinata and carpatica. 

In the other example of weed and grass-grown 
steps, the overgrowth needs restraining and regulat- 
ing. The lowest of the six steps badly wants the 
shears, and the invasion of the small-leaved Ivy, which 
would be desirable if not quite so thick, is also com- 
plicated and made to look untidy by many tufts of 
grass that would be much better away. 

The Scotch walled garden, with its fine row of 







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TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 57 

Pansies, shows the value of good groups of trees in 
connection with walls. 

There is many a dismal wall, or court with paving 
right up to the wall, where the clever placing of some 
suitable plant in a chink of broken-cornered flag- 
stone, or empty joint close to the wall-foot, may 
redeem the dulness and want of interest of such a 
region of unbroken masonry. The plants most suit- 
able for such a place are Male Fern and Harts-tongue, 
Welsh Poppy, and Iris fcetidissima ; all but the Poppy 
having also the advantage of winter beauty. Just 
lately in my own home I have had an example of the 
willingness of a pretty plant to grow in the little space 
offered by the meeting of two paving-stones, one of 
which had lost an angle. Here a seed of Mimulus 
cupreus grew self-sown, and the neat little plant, with 
its rich, deep orange bloom flowering all the summer, 
is a joy to see. This would also be a plant for the 
stone-paved sunless court with others of its family, 
. including the common Musk. 

The picture of a fine stone bridge in the north of 
England shows how much a good and simple structure 
gains by the invasion of Ivy and wild things of even 
more bushy growth. Here is a beneficent piece of 
human work in a naturally beautiful landscape of 
wood and water. Stream and forest accept the man- 
wrought bridge and offer it welcome and brother- 
hood by adorning it with the friendly growths, whose 
masses are so admirably disposed, that the scene 



58 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

becomes a picture that is very much the better for 
the presence of the bridge, while the bridge itself 
is much the more beautiful for the neighbourly 
invasion. 

The same influence of vegetation in softening the 
aspect of rugged architecture may be seen wherever 
there are old buildings ; its presence investing the 
ancient structure with a whole new range of qualities 
that excite the keenest interest in cultivated minds. 
For who can see the splendid work of human 
design and skill as shown in this grand rough-hewn 
masonry, absolutely adapted to its own work, and 
yet, from its complete sympathy with surrounding 
nature, seeming to grow spontaneously out of the 
rocky gorge ; who can see this, made all the more 
perfect by the lovely work of God in the dainty 
Fern fronds of the Maidenhair, without a thrill of 
humble admiration and thankfulness ? 




ARCHES: PESCINA ANAGNI, ITALY 




%>M^ — 



CHAPTER VIII 

SOME PROBLEMS IN WALL-GARDENING 

The illustration shows one of the many pleasant 
ways in which a little careful study of ground pro- 
blems and ingenious adaptation of material can be 
worked out and made into a simple thing of beauty 
and delight. 

A half-sunk garden passage leads on a gentle uphill 
slope from house to stables. The walls are of blocks 
of stone with wide joints, all laid a little sloping back, 
so that the whole face of the two walls lies back. The 
wall was planted, both as it was built, and also after- 
wards, with quantities of spring-flowering plants; 
Arabis, Aubrietia, Violets, Pinks, Cerastium, and 
others of early bloom. The crowning pergola, on 
which grow Vines only (late-leafing in England), 
does not over-shade the early flowers when they are 
in bloom, while later it rather gives them comfort by 
sheltering them from the summer sun-heat. The 
path is paved with flags so that it neither wants weed- 
ing nor repair from being washed out, while the very 
easiest sweeping keeps it clean. 

Many are the unsightly and featureless places that 
by some such treatment might be made beautiful, and 
more quickly than in any other way of gardening ; 

59 



6o WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

for the wall-plants having their roots always cool seem 
to grow away quickly at once, and yet to be longer- 
lived than their own brother plants in the more level 
garden. 

Indeed, wall-gardening is not only extremely in- 
teresting and soon rewarding, but it seems to quicken 
the inventive faculty ; for if one has once tasted its 
pleasures and mastered some of the simpler ways of 
adapting it for use, others are sure to present them- 
selves, and a whole new region of discursive delights 
offers itself for the mental exploration of the horti- 
culturally inventive. One after another, pleasant 
schemes come to mind, soon to be fashioned, with 
careful design and such manual skill as may have 
been acquired, into such simple things of beauty 
and delight as this first flower-walled and then Vine- 
shaded pleasant pathway. 

Besides the wall-gardening that may be designed 
and reared, there is also that which is waiting to be 
done in walls that are already in being. Sometimes 
there is an old wall from whose joints the surface 
mortar has crumbled and fallen. Such a wall as is 
shown in the illustration is indeed a treasure, for its 
rugged surface can soon be jewelled with the choicest 
of mural vegetation. 

But so good a chance is not for every garden, for 
often the wall that one would wish to make the home 
of many a lovely plant is of the plainest brick or stone, 
and the mortar joints are fairly sound. Still the ardent 
wall-gardener is not to be daunted, for, armed with a 
hammer and a bricklayer's cold chisel, he knocks out 



PROBLEMS IN WALL-GARDENING 6i 

joints and corners of bricks (when a builder is not 
looking on) exactly where he wishes to have his ranges 
of plants. 

A well-built wall, seasoned and solidified by some 
years' standing, will bear a good deal of such knocking 
about. In chiselling out the holes the only thing that 
had better be avoided is making much of a cavity just 
under an upright joint ; nor is it ever needful, for 
even if one wishes to have a longish range of any 
one plant, as shown in the diagram in the case of the 
growth horizontally hatched, the plants will close up, 
though planted in the first place a little way apart, while 
there is nothing against widening any upright joint or 
making it gape funnelwise either upward or down. 

The diagram gives a general indication of the way 
in which it is advised that plants should be disposed. 
It shows four kinds in a section of wall of from six to 
seven feet long. Three of the kinds are hatched across 
in different ways to distinguish them. Even this sort 
of arrangement would be monotonous unless it were 
varied by some wall spaces left almost blank, and then 
perhaps with one such range alone. The four kinds 
are almost too many at a time, and were only crowded 
in to illustrate the same kind of arrangement with 
slight variations. The way of growth must, of course, 
be taken into account, for it would be a grievous 
oversight to plant a range of Rock Pinks or Arabis or 
Alyssum, that in a year or two will hang down two 
feet, and to plant in the next course below them some 
other smaller things that would soon be smothered. 
So the upright growth of Wallflower, Snapdragon, and 



62 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

Valerian must be considered and allowed for as well 
as the down-drooping of those that make hanging 
sheets. So also the neat stay-at-home habit of Thrift 
will be taken into account, and the way of running 
along a joint of Polypody and Campanula ccespitosa. 

From March to May, or just after they ripen in the 
autumn, seeds are put in mixed with a little loamy earth, 
and if the cleft or opening is an upright one, unwilling 
to retain the mixture, a little stone is wedged in at the 
bottom or even cemented in. For a plant of rather 
large growth, like V2XQXYds\{Centranthus),2i whole coping 
brick can be knocked off the top, and probably quite 
a nice rooting-place be made with the downward- 
digging chisel, to be filled up with suitable soil. 

By some such means, and always thinking and 
trying and combining ideas, the plainest wall can in a 
couple of years be so pleasantly transformed that it is 
turned into a thing of flowery beauty. There is no 
wall with exposure so hot or so cold that has not a 
plant waiting for just the conditions that it has to offer, 
and there will be no well-directed attempt to convert 
mural ugliness into beauty whose result will not be an 
encouragement to go on and do still better. 




Ah' A BIS. 



TYPE OF A HANGING WALL PLANT FOR USES 
DESCRIBED IN LAST CHAPTER. 



CHAPTER IX 

WHEN TO LET WELL ALONE 

In garden arrangement, as in all other kinds of deco- 
rative work, one has not only to acquire a knowledge 
of what to do, but also to gain some wisdom in 
perceiving what it is well to let alone. The want 
of such knowledge or discrimination, or whatever it 
may be called, is never more frequently or more 
conspicuously shown than in the treatment of grassy 
spaces in pleasure grounds, that are planted at the 
discretion of some one who has not the gift of know- 
ing what kind of placing, of what trees or shrubs, is 
the most advisable. 

Such a one naturally says, " Here is a space of turf 
otherwise unoccupied, let us put there a specimen 
tree." It may be a place in which the careful and 
highly cultured garden critic may say, "Here is a 
space of turf, let us be thankful for it, and above all 
things guard it from any intrusion." I call to mind 
two good places where there is a dignified house, and 
groups of grand trees, and stretches of what should be 
unbroken level sward. In older days it was so ; the 
spreading branches of the great Cedars and Beeches 
came down to the lawn, and on summer evenings 

the shadow of a noble grove of ancient trees swept 

63 



64 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

clear across the grassy level. The whole picture was 
perfect in its unity and peace, in its harmony of line 
and fine masses of form — full of dignity, repose, and 
abounding satisfaction. 

Now the noble lawn-levels have been broken by a 
dotting about of specimen Conifers. One Abies nord- 
mannia, one Thuya, one Wellingtonia, one Araucaria, 
one Taxodium, and so on, and so on. What once 
was a sanctuary of ordered peace is now a wearisome 
and irritating exposition of monotonous common- 
place. The spiritual and poetical influences of the 
garden are gone. The great Cedars are still there, 
but from no moderately distant point can they now 
be seen because of the impertinent interposition of 
intruding "specimens." 

Like many another thing done in gardens, how 
much better it would have been not to have done 
it ; to have left the place unspoilt and untormented 
by these disastrous interlopers. If only it had just 
been let alone ! 

The illustration shows a noble house in South 
Middle England. The picture is complete. The 
great building is reflected in the still water, and the 
natural water margin, without any artificial planting, 
is wisely left alone. It is all so solemn, so dignified, 
that any added fussiness of small detail, however 
beautiful in itself, would be a kind of desecration. 
There are plenty of other opportunities for garden- 
ing about this fine place, already wisely treated, and 
though it is tempting to plant any edge of pool or 




'-0 



WHEN TO LET WELL ALONE 6^ 

river, happily it has those for its owners who, with 
wise discrimination, see that it is better let alone. 

So again in the case of a wild forest pool, such as 
the one shown in the picture. Here is a glimpse of 
quiet natural beauty ; pure nature untouched. Being 
in itself beautiful, and speaking direct to our minds 
of the poetry of the woodland, it would be an ill deed 
to mar its perfection by any meddlesome gardening. 
The most one could do in such a place, where deer 
may come down to drink and the dragon-fly flashes 
in the broken midsummer light, would be to plant 
in the upper ground some native wild flower that 
would be in harmony with the place but that may 
happen to be absent, such as Wood Sorrel or Wood 
Anemone ; but nothing that would recall the garden. 
Here is pure forest, and garden should not intrude. 
Above all, the water-margin should be left as it is. 
Foreign Irises, so good to plant by many garden 
pools, would here be absurd and only painfully ob- 
trusive, and as the place is already right it is far best 
left alone. There are many places that call aloud for 
judicious planting. This is one where all meddling 
is forbidden. 



CHAPTER X 

THE STREAM-GARDEN AND MARSH POOLS 

Where there is a stream passing through the out- 
skirts of a garden, there will be a happy prospect 
of delightful ways of arranging and enjoying the 
beautiful plants that love wet places. Even where 
there are no natural advantages of pictorial environ- 
ment, given a little sinking of the level and the least 
trickle of water, with a simple and clever arrange- 
ment of bold groups of suitable plants, a pretty 
stream-picture may be made, as is seen by the illus- 
tration of the water-garden in a good nursery near 
London. 

But where there is a rather wider and more copious 
stream, rippling merrily over its shallow bed, there 
are even wider possibilities. The banks of running 
water where the lovely Water Forget-me-not grows 
are often swampy, and the path that is to be carried 
near one of them may probably want some such treat- 
ment as is recommended in the early part of the 
chapter on Water Margins. When a water-garden is 
being prepared by the side of any such stream, the 
course of the path may well be varied by running first 
close against the water and then going a yard or two 

66 



THE STREAM-GARDEN 67 

inland ; then it might cross on stepping-stones and 
again run inland and perhaps pass behind a little knoll 
and then again come back to the stream. Then the 
stream might divide, and the path be carried between 
two rills, and so on in a progression of varied incident 
that would be infinitely more interesting than if the 
path kept to one bank nearly always at the same 
distance from the water after the manner of a towing- 
path. 

I am supposing my stream to run along the bottom 
of a little valley. Close to it the ground is open, 
except for a few tufts of low wild bushes. As the 
ground rises it is wooded, first with sparse copse-wood 
and groups of Birches and Hollies ; and after this 
a rather thick wood of Scotch F'ir. 

Having pleasantly diversified the path in relation 
to the stream, we have to think how best it may 
be planted. Some of the plants suited to the running 
stream edge will be the same as for the margins of 
stiller ponds, but some that have a liking for running 
water will be proper to the stream itself. Such a one 
is the Water Forget-me-not. If it does not occur in 
the neighbourhood it is easy to raise quite a large 
stock from seed ; and strong seedlings or divisions 
of older plants have only to be planted in the muddy 
soil at the water edge when they will soon grow into 
healthy spreading sheets and give plenty of the dainty 
bloom whose blue is the loveliest of any English plant. 
Next to the Forget-me-not on the water edge, and also 
a little more inland, I should plant the double Meadow- 



68 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

Sweet, the double garden form of the wild Spircea 
Ulmaria, and again beyond it, quite out of sight of 
the Forget-me-not, others of the herbaceous Spiraeas, 
^. pahnata, S. venusta, and 5". Aruncus — all moisture- 
loving plants. Drifts of these might spread away 
inland, the largest of them, which would be of Spircea 
Aruncus, being placed the furthest from the stream ; 
they are plants of bold aspect, showing well at a little 
distance. 

I should be careful not to crowd too many different 
plants into my stream-picture. Where the Forget- 
me-nots are it would be quite enough to see them 
and the double Meadow- Sweet, and some good 
hardy moisture-loving Fern, Osmunda or Lady Fern. 
The way to enjoy these beautiful things is to see 
one picture at a time ; not to confuse the mind 
with a crowded jumble of too many interesting 
individuals, such as isj usually to be seen in a water- 
garden. 

Close by the stream-side and quite out of view of 
other flowering plants should be a bold planting of 
Iris l(Evigata, the handsome Japanese kind, perhaps 
better known as Iris Kcsmpferi. It is in varied 
colourings of white, lilac, and several shades and kinds 
of purple ; but for this stream, where it is desirable to 
have the simplest effects, the single pure white alone 
will be best. There are double varieties, but in these 
the graceful purity of the form is lost and the char- 
acter of the flower is confused. The best way to 
grow them in England is in the boggy margin, not in 




IRIS L/E\-I(^ATA. SYN. I. KAEMFFERl. 



THE STREAM-GARDEN 69 

the stream itself ; for though seeds will fall and ger- 
minate in shallow water, planted roots do better just 
out of it, but always with their heads in the full sun- 
shine. This is one of the many cases where the 
natural ways of a plant cannot be followed in our 
gardens, for in Japan they commonly grow with the 
roots submerged. Some plants of bright green foliage, 
such as the handsome branched Bur-reed {Sparganium 
ramosum) will fittingly accompany groups of this noble 
Water Iris. 

The yellow Mimulus {M. luteus) is a capital thing 
for the stream-side ; once planted it will take care of 
itself ; indeed it has become naturalised by many 
streams in England. Another interesting and pretty 
plant that would do well in its company is the 
only English representative of the Balsams, Inipatiens 
Noli-me-tangere ; it is an annual, but will sow itself 
again. 

It should be noted that in such a stream-garden it 
will usually be the opposite side that is best seen, and 
this should be borne in mind while composing the 
pictures and setting out the path. 

It is well worth while to consider some pleasant 
arrangement of colour in the way the varied flower- 
pictures will present themselves in the course of a 
walk ; thus, after the blue Forget-me-not with the 
white Spiraeas might come the pink and rosy colour- 
ings of Spircea venusta and S. palntata. 

As the stream leads further away we begin to forget 



70 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

the garden, and incline towards a wish for the 
beautiful things of our own wilds, so that here 
would be, for the earliest water flowers of the year, 
the smaller of the wild kinds of Water Buttercup 
{Ranunculus aquatilis). The larger kind, more frequent 
near London, R. grandiflorus, is figured elsewhere. 
The smaller one is in better proportion to the size 
of the little stream. The picture shows how it grows 
in pretty patches, though the stream is not the 
one that is being described. Near it, but flowering 
later, are some strong patches of the native yellow 
Water Iris (/. Pseud-acorus), some of the same being 
in a swampy patch a yard or two from the bank 
on the other side of the path, with some of the 
handsome smooth-leaved rank growth of the Water 
Dropwort. 

A little further the tall yellow Loosestrife {Lysi- 
machid) will make some handsome patches ; then will 
come a few yards of rest from bright flowers and a 
region of Fern-fringed stream bank, where the Lady 
Fern, one of the most delicately beautiful of water- 
side plants, should have a good space ; some plants 
almost touching the water and others a little way up 
the bank. 

After this the character of the stream shows a 
change, for here is a clump of Alders, the advance 
guard of a greater number that are to be seen 
beyond. Now it is time to make some important 
effect with plants of a larger size, that will prepare 
the eye, as it were, for the larger scale of the water- 




WHERE THE STREAM PASSES UNDER J HE ilVLLOirS 
AND ALDERS. 



THE STREAM-GARDEN 71 

loving trees. Here, therefore, we have a widespread 
planting of these large things. By the stream on one 
bank a long-shaped mass of the rosy Loosestrife 
{Lythrum), and detached patches of the same hand- 
some plant, and grouped near and partly with it the 
Giant Cow-Parsnip {Heracleum). The one so long in 
cultivation is a grand plant in such a place, but still 
better is the newer H. mantegazzianiim. On the other 
bank is the native Butter-bur {Petasites) with its 
immense leaves, a striking contrast in leaf-form to its 
neighbours. 

Now the stream passes into the swampy region of 
Willows and Alders, and the path follows it only a 
little way in ; but already we have been among great 
clumps of Marsh Marigold, some close down to the 
stream edge in the open, and some in wet hollows a 
yard or two away. But in the dark pools of mud and 
water under the Alders the clumps grow larger and 
more luscious, and in April they are a sight to see, 
showing sheets of rich yellow bloom, that look all the 
brighter rising alone from the black pools under the 
trees. 

The path that has hitherto accompanied the stream 
now turns away from it, and on its return journey 
skirts the streamward side of some boggy pools and 
oozy places that lie at the foot of the wood's edge. 
The wood is mostly of Scotch Fir, with a lesser 
number of Oaks, Hollies, and Birches in the opener 
parts. It slopes down to the little valley, ending in a 



72 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

ragged line of low scarp never more than four feet 
high, showing dark peaty earth, and below it whitish 
or yellowish sand more or less stained by the darker 
soil above. The drainage from the wooded hill seems 
to gather in the chain of pool and swamp at the foot. 
The pools lie perhaps two feet above the level of 
the stream ; here and there a sort of natural shallow 
ditch carries the water into it from them. The water 
seems to drain out of the hill very slowly, for nowhere 
does it run, and only near the stream, which is about 
fifty yards away, can one sometimes hear a tiny trickle. 
It is an ideal place for a wild garden of plants that 
like boggy ground and cool wood-side places. The 
wood rises to the south-west, so that the marshy 
region is mostly in shade. Between this boggy belt 
and the stream is rough grass and a few low thorn 
bushes and brambles, in ground which is not exactly 
marshy, but always cool and damp. 

Some of the Firs that come down to the very edge 
of the wood stand on the low scarp of blackish sandy- 
looking ground. Here and there it is broken down 
into a little gently-sloping bank that sucks up the 
moisture from below and is sunless from the shading 
of the wood. These little banks, naturally mossy, are 
just the place for Linncsa and for Pyrola and Trien- 
talis, three plants of a nature that is neither large 
nor showy, but that has that charm that cannot 
be described, that makes the heart leap, and frames 
the lips into the utterance of an exclamation of 
joy and thankfulness, and that holds the mind en- 



THE STREAM-GARDEN 73 

thralled by the subdued and mysterious poetry of 
beauty that is a character of these lovely little modest 
growths of the woodland wilds of our own and other 

lands. 

Here too, rather more in the open, is the Mountain 
Avens {Dryas octopetala), and in that moist hollow, 
almost swampy and always somewhat in shade, is 
Epig(Ba repens, the May-flower of New England. 
Then in the damp grass, more towards the stream, 
there are here and there tufts of the two Marsh 
Orchids with flowers of greenish purple, and hand- 
some clear-cut foliage, the Marsh Helleborine and 
the broad-leaved Helleborine {Epipactis palustris and 

E. latifolid). 

In a place like this these beautiful things can be 
seen and enjoyed at ease, and far better than when 
they are cramped close together in a smaller space. 
Here again will be the marsh-loving Ferns, and fore- 
most among them great groups of the Royal Fern 
(Osmunda) at the edge of one of the small marshy 
pools that are deeply fringed and sometimes filled with 
the pale-green bog-moss Sphagnum. 

These little still pools, some of them only a yard or 
two across, are not stagnant, for they are constantly 
fed by the trickle of the springs, and the moisture— 
scarcely running water— finds its slow way to the 
stream. Their fringes are a paradise for Ferns. Be- 
sides the Royal Fern there are two of the largest and 
most graceful of British Ferns, Aspleniuni Filix-fcemina 
and Nephrodium dilatatum (Dilated Shield Fern), and 



74 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

down at the moistest pool edge are Nephrodium 
Thelypteris and Lomaria, and a little way up on the 
cool bank, always in shade, the North American 
Onoclea sensibilis. In a moist nook already filled with 
Sphagnum, in this region of Fern beauty, and with 
the dusky wood beyond, is a considerable planting of 
the North American Mocassin-flower {Cypripedium 
spectabile), with its great pouched and winged flowers 
of rose and white, and its fine pleated leaves of bright 
fresh green. What a plant ! Its beauty almost takes 
away one's breath. Any one who had never seen it 
before, suddenly meeting it in such a place, with no 
distractions of other flower-forms near, would think it 
was some brilliant stove Orchid escaped into the wild. 
It loves to throw its long cord-like roots out into black 
peaty mud, when they will grow strong and interlace 
into a kind of vegetable rook's-nest. Every year the 
tufts will become stronger and send up still nobler 
spikes of leaf and bloom. 

Such a sight seems to give the mind a kind of full 
meal of enjoyment of flower beauty, and it is well that 
following it there shall be some plant of quite another 
class. So the next boggy patch has another American 
plant of a very different form, the curious Sarracenia 
purpurea ; a weird, half-hooded trumpet of a thing, of 
a dull-green colour, closely veined with red purple, 
and near it, in striking contrast to its mysterious 
aspect, the frank and pure-looking Grass of Parnassus 
{Parnassia palustris), with its white bloom daintily 
veined with green and its pretty pearl-like buds. Near 




GA LA X A PH YLLA . {See next page.) 



THE STREAM-GARDEN 75 

these may also be Pinguicula grandiflora^ the finest of 
the native Butterworts, that grows in the bogs of the 
south-west of Ireland, and looks like handsome Violets 
rising from the pale-green bog-moss. 

One spot of Sphagnum-haunted bog-land should 
have some of the native marsh plants that are perfect 
gems of beauty. The little Bog Pimpernel, whose 
small pink flowers remind one of those of Linncua, the 
more so that they are generally borne in pairs, though 
of different habit, in that they stand up instead of 
drooping. Then there will be the Ivy-leaved Bell- 
flower, smallest of its kind, its flowers carried on 
hair-like stalks, and its little leaves of tenderest tissue, 
Ivy-like with pointed lobes. Then the small Cornish 
Moneywort {Sibthorpia europcsd), not hardy in the 
north, with pretty tender pale-green leaves and 
flowers scarcely noticeable ; and here may be grown 
the two little native Bog Orchids, Malaxis and 
Liparis. All these are such small things that they 
might easily be overlooked unless one knew that in 
such a special place they were to be found for a little 
searching. 

At a place where the bank between wood and 
marsh is cool and moist, yet not boggy, will be 
Gaultheria procumbens, closely carpeting the ground 
with its neat sheets of green lighted up by its bright 
red berry, and above it and stretching in under the 
Firs its larger relative, Gaultheria Shallon. On some 
cool mossy bank there will be two charming little 



76 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

plants, one native, one North American — Goodyera 
repens, with its brightly veined and marbled leaves, 
creeping close to the ground, where it may have to 
be looked for among the moss, and Mitchella repens, 
the Partridge Berry. This little plant also creeps 
among the moss. It has neat entire leaves veined 
with white, and bright red berries following whitish 
flowers. 

Another plant from North America, a strange, hand- 
some thing that deserves to be better known, will have 
a place in this region. Out of bloom it would never 
be noticed among its neighbouring clumps of Royal 
Fern, for it looks only like a tuft of grass ; but when 
it throws up its tall flower-spikes, Xerophyllunt is a 
plant that commands admiration and even some sur- 
prise. It flourishes in a peaty place that is cool and 
damp though not swampy. Another plant of con- 
siderable beauty, Galax aphylla, likes exactly the same 
conditions, with a little shade added. This is another 
of the good things that has come to us from North 
America, and is a precious plant in several ways of 
gardening ; it is so neat and pretty that it is suitable 
as a single plant among the choicest things in a re- 
stricted collection, while in the wild garden it is 
equally in place in considerable masses. It thrives 
where there is peat or sandy leaf-mould that can 
always be kept a little moist, and though rather 
slow at first, yet as soon as the tufts begin to grow 
strongly they increase, spreading outwards, fairly fast. 
The flowers are gracefully carried on thin, strong. 




XEROPHYLLUM ASPHODELOIDES. 



THE STREAM-GARDEN 77 

almost wire-like stems, and the leaves, tough and 
leathery, though not thick, assume a beautiful winter 
colouring. 

Some charming native bog-plants must also not 
be neglected. The Bog Asphodel {JSlartheciutn), with 
its straight spikes of yellow bloom and neat sheaves 
of small Iris-like leaves ; the Cotton Grass {Erio- 
phormn), and the Sundew {Drosera rotundifolid). 
These all thrive in beds of Sphagnum. 

Here also should be the bog-loving Heath {Erica 
tetralix), the Pink Bell Heather, and its white variety, 
and our native Sweet Bog Myrtle. Sweeter still and 
here in place will be the Canadian Candleberry Gale 
{Myrica ceriferd), and another of the same most 
fragrant - leaved family, Coniptonia asplenifoliay the 
"Sweet Fern" of the Northern States. 

One little marsh pool must be given to Calla 
palustris, rooted in the margin and spreading to- 
wards the water ; a very clean-looking plant with 
its solid leaves and ivory-white flowers. Its near 
relative and natural associate, Orontiuniy may well 
be with it, rising from the bottom in water about 
a foot deep. 

In the green space of rough grass between the 
marsh pools and the running water, there is already 
a fair quantity of the pretty pink-flowered Marsh 
Rattle iPedicularis), and in the same region Gentiana 
Pneumonanthe has been planted. There is no occa- 
sion to cram this space with plants, and yet it is 
pleasant to come across surprises ; here and there a 



78 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

clump of some good Fern, or, in the drier places, 
some interesting Bramble. 

The lower part of the little valley (the Marsh 
Marigold and Alder region is at the upper) is less 
peaty ; in parts more of an alluvial loam. Here the 
English Fritillaries are at home in scattered groups, 
some purple and some white. Here also will be repre- 
sentatives of the small Trumpet Daffodils, N. Pseudo- 
narcissus, N. nanus, and N. minor ; and here will be 
the Globe-flowers {Trollius) 3.nd. the handsome purple- 
blue-flowered Geranium pratense. 



Plants for the Stream and Stream-side 



Myosotis palustris. 
Spircea pabnata. 
S. Artcncus. 
Iris IcEvigata. 
Mimulus btteus. 
Ranunculus aquatilis. 
Lysimachia vulgaris. 
Heracleum giganteum. 
H. mantegazzianum. 



Spircea Ulmariafl. pi. 
S. venusta. 
Osmunda regalis. 
Asplenium Filix-fcemina. 
Impatiens Noli-me-tangere. 
Iris Pseud-acorus. 
Lythrum Salicaria roseum. 
Petasites vulgaris. 
Caltha palusiris. 



Plants for Damp Peaty Bank 



Linncea borealis. 
Trientalis europc^us. 
Dryas octopetala. 
Gaultheria procumbens. 
G. Shallon. 

Asplenium Filix-fcemtna. 
Nephrodium dilatatum. 



Pyrola minor. 
P. arenaria. 
Epigcea repens. 
Goodyera repens. 
Mitchella repens. 
Lomaria spicarit. 
Osmunda regalis. 



THE STREAM-GARDEN 79 

Plants for Peaty Bog-Pools and Beds 
OF Sphagnum 

Cypripedhim spectabile. Sarracenia purpurea. 

Calla palustris. Orontiuin aquaticum. 

Parnassia palustris. Pinguicula grandiflora. 

Anagallis tenella. Campanula hederacea. 

Sibthorpia europcea. Malaxis paludosa. 

LipatHs Loeselii. Narthecium ossifragum. 

Eriophorian angustifoliwn. Drosera rotundifolia. 

In Cool Peat 
Xerophyllum asphodeloides. Galax aphylla. 

In Damp Grass near Stream 

Pedicularis palustris. Gentiana Pneiononanthe. 

Fritillaria Meleagris. Trollius europcsus. 

Geranium pratense. Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus. 

Narcissus nanus. N. minor. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE ROCK-GARDEN — GENERAL ARRANGEMENT 

After the marsh pools and still on the homeward 
journey, and between this region and the shrubbery 
portion of the garden proper, will be the rock-garden 
(see plan, p. 89), approached on the marsh side by 
some of the plants of rather large size. Nothing is 
more strikingly beautiful than a large patch of Equi- 
setuni Tebnateia, a native plant ; mysterious, graceful, 
and almost tropical-looking. Near it there are two 
large-leaved plants, Saxifraga peltata, in moist rich 
soil carrying its great leaves three feet high, and 
Rodgersia podopkylla, with palmate leaves as large as 
those of the Horse Chestnut, but the divisions hand- 
somely jagged at the ends, and the whole leaf of 
a fine reddish-bronze colouring. It is sometimes 
crippled by late frosts, and well deserves the protec- 
tion of a few Fir boughs. 

If there is space enough here would also be a place 
for the giant Gunneras (besides their other water-side 
sites), and for another spreading patch of Heracleum 
mantegazzianum, for Arundo Donax, and for the Bam- 
boos. These giant Reeds and Grasses should in such 
a good garden as this have a large space, of which 

they would be the chief occupants. They should be 

80 




ZENOBIA (ANDROMEDA) SPECIOSA (FULL SIZE). 
{Type of small evergreen flowering shrub for the Rock-Garden. 



THE ROCK-GARDEN 8i 

in bold, informal clumps, with easy grassy ways pass- 
ing between. In the present case the fringe of their 
masses on the rock-garden side is approached by 
shrubs that will enjoy the same conditions. These 
will be Kalmias, Azaleas, Ledums, Andromedas, Vac- 
ciniums, Gaultherias, and Myricas, the bog and peat- 
loving shrubs. Of these the Kalmias and Myricas will 
suit the dampest places. As clumps or groups of 
these approach the rock-garden they will join on to 
it without any jarring obstruction. The green path 
that skirts the cool foot of the mound or promontory 
that forms the rock-garden will only be one of 
several others that pass among the Bamboos and join 
the path that we came along by the bog pools. The 
plan shows the general arrangement. Even where the 
peaty foot of the rock mound comes down to the 
level, the rock-garden's influence will still cross the 
grass path ; for the same kind of planting is continued 
on the other side, only then dying away into the larger 
growths that will continue the scheme of planting in 
that direction. 

Now we are clear of the Fir-wood hill, and the 
ground to the south-west, though still slightly rising, 
and thinly wooded with Oak, Thorn, and Holly, is not 
steep enough to shade the rock-garden ; moreover, some 
trees have been cut away to ensure that full light and 
clear air space that so many rock-plants need. 

The rock-garden has been made in what was a 

natural knoll of sharply rising ground, or rather a 

kind of promontory thrust out from the wood. 

F 



82 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

Three main paths pass through it ; the one on the 
right skirts the natural foot of the promontory, passing 
first north-east, then north, then a little north-west ; 
the one to the left mounts its shoulder by an easy 
ascent, partly excavated so as to give rocky banks 
right and left ; but it is nearly level at the top before 
coming to the further descent. Here will be the place 
for fine short turf to be pierced by the bloom of 
mountain bulbs, Snowdrops, Spring Snowflakes, and 
the like ; each kind having its own little region, in- 
formally bordered by some group of small bushes. 

The third path will be cut through the heart of the 
knoll, gently turning, and having steep banks right 
and left. In forming such a rock-garden as this the 
rock-builder must use all his skill, so that the lines of 
the work shall not only be good in themselves, but 
shall not jar with anything that comes before or after, 
or with any view of the half distance that can be seen 
from any portion of the garden scheme. 

This scheme of three main pathways supposes a 
fair space of ground, such as a third of an acre to 
half an acre. If less space has to be dealt with it is 
better to have an easy path alone and a sloping bank 
on either side, as in the good rock-garden shown in 
the illustration at the next page. 

When the ground is shaped and the rocks placed, 
the next matter of importance, and that will decide 
whether the rock-garden is to be a thing of some 
dignity or only the usual rather fussy mixture, is to 
have a solid planting of suitable small shrubs crown- 
ing all the heights. Most important of these will 




WELL-ARRANGED ROCK-GARDEN IN THE FORM OF A LFFTLE 

VALLEY, 



THE ROCK-GARDEN 83 

be the Alpine Rhododendrons ; neat in habit, dark 
of foliage, and on a scale that does not overwhelm 
the little plant jewels that are to come near them. 
No shrubs are so suitable for a good part of the main 
plantings in the higher regions. Then there will be 
Heaths, among which the white Menziesia would be 
largely used on the cooler exposures, and Pernettyas 
in quantity. The pretty and fragrant Ledum palustre 
will also be a useful shrub in the backward regions of 
the cooler portions, while the neat L. buxifolium, on 
the fringes of the solid shrub planting, will lead well to 
the smaller plants. Other shrubs that will suit these 
upper portions are Cistus laurifolius, Cistus cyprius, 
with Spanish Gorse and various Brooms in the hot- 
test places ; Andromedas, Gaultherias, Pernettyas, and 
Ledums will come in the cooler spots. In addition 
to the Alpine Rhododendrons there will be R. myrti- 
folium and several small garden hybrids. 

These are all shrubs of dark coloured foliage ; by 
using them in bold masses they will give the whole 
rock-garden that feeling of unity and simplicity 
of design that often in such places is so painfully 
wanting. 

Other small evergreen shrubs, such as Skimmias 
and Daphne pontica should also be used rather near 
together, but from their brighter and paler colour 
preferably in a group by themselves. 

By working on such a general plan we shall avoid 
that rude shock so often experienced when the rock- 
garden comes into view, from its appearance being 
so uncompromisingly sudden. Perhaps there is a 



84 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

smooth bit of lawn, with pleasant easy lines of flower 
or shrub clump ; then you pass round some bush, 
and all at once there is a shockingly sudden rock- 
garden. I cannot think of any other term that gives 
the impression I wish to convey. It often comes of 
want of space. Only a certain space can be given 
to the rock-plants, and it must be made the most 
of ; still, even in small gardens it might be more or 
less prepared or led up to. But I am not just now 
considering the limitations of the smallest gardens 
(a tempting theme, but one that should be taken 
by itself), but rather the best way to lay out ground 
that is not cramped in space or stinted of reasonable 
labour. Therefore, where the region of groups of 
handsome hardy moisture-loving exotics ends (to 
the left of M and P on the plan), we come to an 
occasional flatfish boulder or blunt-nosed rock just 
rising above the ground, as the path rises very gently. 
Presently these large plants, of which the furthest 
back were in quite moist ground, are left behind, 
and we are among bushes four to seven feet high 
(N and above on plan). These give place to lower 
shrubs, rather more thinly grouped, while the rocky 
boulders are more frequent and more conspicuous. 
Presently, and only by a gentle transition, the rock- 
mound comes into view, and we see that there are 
three paths, each having a slightly different aspect, 
while the whole mound, clothed with dark, close- 
growing, and for the most part, dwarf shrubs, has 
a unity of character which presents no shock to 
the mind, but only a pleasant invitation to come 



THE ROCK-GARDEN 85 

and see and enjoy. There is no bewilderment, 
because there is no jumble or crowding of irrelevant 
items. Everything falls into its place, and a quiet 
progress through any one of the paths presents a 
succession of garden-pictures that look not so much 
as if they had been designed and made but as if 
they had just happened to come so. There is 
nothing perhaps to provoke that violent excitement 
of wonderment so dear to the uneducated, but there 
will be, alike to the plant lover and to the garden 
artist, the satisfaction of a piece of happy gardening, 
without strain or affectation, beautiful and delightful 
in all its parts and growing easily and pleasantly out 
of its environment. 

The shrubs named as those best fitted for the 
upper portions of the rock may well have an occa- 
sional exception, for though the masses must be 
large enough to give a feeling of dignity, they must 
not degenerate into monotony. This can be secured 
either by the free growth or rather overgrowth of 
some of the shrubs named, such as that of Brooms 
and Cistus cyprius or by the use of a shrub of larger 
stature, such as Juniper. 

Veronica Traversi, as it grows older and assumes a 
small tree shape, is one of this class and Cassinea 
fulvida is another. Rosemary and Lavender also, 
after a few years of rather close and neat growth, 
rise and spread and open out, showing trunk-like 
stems. This older state, which has a somewhat 
unkempt look in the neater parts of the garden, give 
these shrubs that rather wilder habit that fits them 



86 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

all the better for their place among the boulders of 
the rocky heights. 

There is also a class of shrub of trailing character 
that is most useful for leading from those of stiffer 
growth on the higher ground, to the lower regions 
where there will be more flowery plants. The low 
growing Cotoneasters, Savin, and Miihlenbeckia, are 
some of the best of these, and Heaths of many kinds 
from the tall Tree Heath of the Mediterranean to 
the low-growing and early-blooming Erica carnea. 
Among the different kinds of Heath nothing can 
well exceed the usefulness of the white Menziesia, 
for it is not only a neat dark green tuft in winter, 
but in all the summer months and even into autumn 
it bears its large Heath-bells in good quantity. 

These dwarf shrubs should be planted so as to 
appear to stream out of the dark and solid growths 
above, following and accentuating the stratified lines 
in which the stones are laid. If they are planted just 
above the stones they will fall naturally into their 
places. 

It will also add greatly to the feeling of general 
cohesion which it is so important to obtain in such a 
garden, if below these again the same kind of scheme 
is carried out in plants that have some kind of solidity 
of appearance or persistence throughout the year, such 
as Thrift and Asarum; their long-enduring dark foliage 
being highly becoming as a setting to flowers of lively 
colour. Ferns also, on the shady side, should be 
used in the same way, while on the sunniest exposures 
the same idea would be carried out by. some of the 



THE ROCK-GARDE»N 87 

neat whitish or glaucous-leaved plants, Rock Pinks, 
Antennaria, Achillea, and so on. 

Now and then among the small shrubs, and just 
below the larger ones, a single plant of bold aspect 
will make a great effect, though the general scheme 
of planting should be in easy informal groups or long 
drifts. The kind of plant to use in these points of 
exceptional isolation is such a one as the best type 
of Eryngium. alpinum, or one of the more important 
Euphorbias, or a tuft of Yucca flaccida. 

If the rock-garden is very large, larger than the 
one in contemplation, great groups of the nobler 
Yuccas are magnificent, but they would be on a scale 
rather too large for the present garden. 

Evergreen Shrubs for the Upper Part of the 
Rock-Garden 

Rhododendron ferrugineuni. Cotoneaster horizontalis. 

R. hirsutum. C. microphylla. 

R. myrtifoliwn. Cassinea fulvida. 

Pernettya, vars. Double Gorse. 

Abies danbraziliana. Genista prcecox. 

A.pumila. G. andreana. 

Junipertts Sabina. Cistus laurifolius. 

Lavender. C. cyprius. 

Rosemary. Ruscus racemosus. 

Erica carnea. Veronica Traversi. 

E. Tetralix alba. Daphne Mezereum. 

E. arborea. D. pontica. 

E. ciliaris, E. vagans. D. Cneorum. 
E. cineria, vars. Ulex hispanicus. 

Calluna, vars. Andromeda floribunda. 

Menziesia polifolia. A. Catesbm. 

Miihlenbeckia complexa. Zenobia speciosa. 



88 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



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THE ROCK-GARDEN 



89 



Some of the Easiest Grown Rock-Garden Plants. 



Accena microphylla^ pulchella. 
Achillea umbellata. 
Adonis vernalis. 
^thionema grandiflorum. 
Ajuga, vars. 
Alchemillia alpina. 
Alyssunt saxatile. 
Anemone blanda, nemorosa, 

vars., sylvestris, apetmina. 
Anthericuni liliastrum, liliago. 
Antennaria dioica^ tomentosa. 
A ntirrhinuni ghitijiostittt. 
Arabis albida. 

Arenaria balearica, montana. 
Armeria vulgaris, cephalotes. 
Artejnisia sericea. 
Asarum europceuni. 
Aster alpinus. 
Aubrietia deltoides, grceca. 
Campanula pulla, ccespitosa, 

carpalica, pusilla, barbata. 
Cardamine pratense fl. pi., tri- 

folia. 
Cerastium tomentosum. 
Coptis trifolia. 
Cheiranthus alpinus, Mar- 

shalli. 
Corydalis bulbosa, capnoides. 
Delphinium nudicaule. 
Dentaria diphylla. 
Dianthus casius, deltoides, fra- 

grans, and vars. 
Draba aizoides. 
Epiinediiim macranthum. 
Erica, vars. 
Erinus alpinus. 



Gentiana acaulis, asclepiadea. 
Helianthemitm, vars. 
Hemerocallis Dumortieri. 
Hieraceum aurantiacum, villo- 

sum. 
Hutchinsia alpina. 
Iberis sempervireiis. 
Iris cristata, pumila, vars. 
Linaria alpina, pallida, hepati- 

ccefolia. 
Linum flavum. 
Lithospermum prostratum. 
Lychnis alpina. 
Mentha Reqiiieni. 
Mimulus ctipreus. 
Nieretnbergia rivularis. 
Orobus vernus, aurantius. 
Papaver alpimtni. 
Phlox setacea, vars. 
Polygala Chamcebuxus. 
Polygonutfz affinis, vaccini- 

folium. 
Potentilla alchemilloides, 

dubia. 
Primula rosea, denticulata, 

sikkimensis. 
Sanguinaria canadensis. 
Saponaria ocymoides. 
Saxifraga, Sempervivum, and 

Sedum, many sps. 
Silene alpestris. 
Thyimis lanuginosus, Serpyl- 

lum albus. 
Tiarella cordifolia. 
Uvularia grandiflora. 
Vescicaria utricidata. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE ROCK-GARDEN {continued) 

It can never be repeated too often that in this, as in 
all kinds of gardening where some kind of beauty is 
aimed at, the very best effects are made by the sim- 
plest means, and by the use of a few different kinds of 
plants only at a time. A confused and crowded com- 
position is a fault in any picture ; in the pictures that 
we paint with living plants just as much as in those 
that are drawn and painted on paper or canvas. 
Moreover, the jumbled crowd of incongruous items, 
placed without thought of their effect on one another, 
can only make a piece of chance patchwork ; it can 
never make a design. However interesting the indi- 
vidual plants may be, we want to get good proportion 
and beautiful combination in order to make the good 
garden-picture, while the individuals themselves gain 
in importance by being shown at their best. I have 
therefore thought it would be helpful to put together 
lists of plants for the different situations, and within 
the lists to bracket the names of some that look the 
best as near neighbours. In many cases they can be 
intergrouped at the edges. These lists appear at the 
end of the chapter. Where the same plant is named 
more than once, it is to be understood that it is good 




AUBRIETIA IN THE ROCK-GAlW.iN, 




LirilOSPERMUM PROSTRAILIM (BRIGHT BLUE) HANGING OVER 
ROCK : A SILVERY SAXIFRAGE BELOW. 



THE ROCK-GARDEN 91 

to use in more than one combination. A few examples 
of such groupings of plants will be described, and 
others given in the lists. 

When I think of the rock-garden plants, and try to 
bring to mind those that have given me most pleasure 
for a fair length of time, I think the roll of honour 
must begin with Lithospermum prostratum. There are 
many that give one as keen a feeling of delight and 
thankfulness for a week or ten days, or even a little 
more ; but for steady continuance of beautiful bloom 
I can think of nothing so full of merit. It is, there- 
fore, the best of plants for any important rocky knoll, 
and, as its habit is to trail downwards, it may well go 
on the very top of some jutting promontory fairly to 
the front, or be at the top of a bit of almost wall-like 
rock-work as in the picture. It is neat-looking all the 
year through, and the deep colour of the small rough 
leaves sets off the strong pure blue of the flowers. In 
winter the leaves turn to a kind of black bronze, but 
never lose their neat appearance, as of a well-fitting 
ground carpet. The colour blue in the garden, as also 
in other fields of decorative practice, seems to demand 
a treatment by contrast as an exception to the generally 
desirable rule of treatment by harmony. Therefore I 
do not hesitate to plant near the Lithospermum the 
brilliant pale yellow Cheiranthus alpinus, and, though 
I do not find use for many plants with variegated 
foliage, I like to have in the same group the pretty 
little Arabis lucida variegata. 

Among a host of plants that are of so eminent a 
degree of merit that it is almost impossible to give 



92 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

precedence to any one, Achillea mnbellata takes high 
rank. The two illustrations in the chapter on the 
Sunny Rock-wall (pp. 6 and 7) show it both in summer 
bloom and winter foliage. With this charming thing 
I should group some of the plants of low-toned 
pink blossom, such as Thrift and the pink-flowered 
Cudweed {Antennaria), and any of the encrusted 
Saxifrages ; or separately with the charming Phlox 
setacea " Vivid," in this case with nothing else then in 
bloom quite near. 

There are some little plants that grow in sheets, 
whose bloom is charming, but on so small a scale 
that other flowers of larger size or stouter build would 
seem to crush them. Such a one is the dainty little 
Linnasa, which should have a cool shady region of its 
own among tiny Ferns, and nothing large to over- 
master it. 

The little creeping Linaria hepaticcefolia is another 
of this small, dainty class, best accompanied by things 
of a like stature, such as Arenaria balearica, and per- 
haps little Ferns and Mossy Saxifrages. Arenaria 
balearica is a little gem for any cool rocky place ; it 
grows fast and clings close to the stones. It always 
spreads outwardly, seeking fresh pasture ; after a time 
dying away in the middle. The illustration having 
this Arenaria on the angle of a small rock-garden 
shows a little dark patch on its surface, first flowerless 
and then dying away, while the outer fringe of the 
patch grows onward. Aubrietia, Arabis, Iberis, and 
Cerastiumy four of the commonest of spring-blooming 
plants of Alpine origin that have long been grown in 




LONDON PRIDE {SA.XinUGJ UMnKU^UM, TYl'F OF 
IMPORTANT CLASS OF SAXIFRAGE. 



ONE 



THE ROCK-GARDEN 93 

gardens, are capital companions, making sheets of 
hanging or traiHng bloom at that flowery time when 
spring joins hands with summer. The palest coloured 
of the Aubrietias are among the best, and should not 
be neglected in favour of the stronger purples. 

A little later in the year Campanula pulla and Silene 
alpestris do well together, plentifully framed with 
small Ferns and Mossy Saxifrages. The lovely Iris 
cristata is charming with Corydalis capnoides of the 
pale yellowish white bloom and bluish almost feathery 
leaves. 

In the upper and bolder regions of the rock- 
garden where there will be small shrubs, the fine 
blue-flowered dwarf Flag Iris, /. Cengialli, should 
be grouped under a bush of Eurybia gunniana. 

London Pride, the best of the Saxifrages of that 
class, should be plentifully grouped with strong 
patches of the lovely white St. Bruno's Lily, backed 
by some bushes of dark foliage as of Gaultheria 
Shallon or Alpine Rhododendron. 

It is one of the pleasures of the rock-garden to 
observe what plants (blooming at the same time) will 
serve to make these pretty mixtures, and to see how 
to group and arrange them (always preferably in 
long-shaped drifts) in such a way that they will best 
display their own and each other's beauty ; so that 
a journey through the garden, while it presents 
a well-balanced and dignified harmony throughout 
its main features and masses, may yet at every 
few steps show a succession of charming lesser 
pictures. 



94 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

It is only possible to point to a few examples, but 
those who work carefully in their rock-gardens will 
see the great gain that rewards a little care and 
thought in putting the right things together. If they 
will take the trouble to work out the few examples 
given, they will be able to invent many other such 
combinations for themselves. 

Then there comes the question of putting the right 
plants in the right places. The picture of Androsace 
lanuginosa may be taken as an illustration of a good 
rock-plant well placed, partly on the flat, but also 
falling down the face of the rock. Nothing but a 
knowledge of the plant's ways and a lively sympathy 
with its wants can make right placing a certainty, 
but the gradual learning of these things is one of 
the pleasures of gardening. 

Where the garden adjoins ground of a rocky, or 
rocky and woody character, the difficulty of con- 
struction is reduced to the lowest point. There are 
thousands of acres of such ground in the remoter 
parts of our islands, many of them no doubt so placed 
that with a very little alteration and the addition of 
just the right plants, the most beautiful of rock- 
gardens could be made. Such ground as the rocky 
wood with its own wild Foxgloves shown in the 
illustration could hardly be bettered as a rock-garden 
background, and would suggest bold treatment, in- 
deed would absolutely forbid anything petty or 
niggling. 

It is highly interesting to have a space in one of 
the warmest and most sheltered regions of the rock- 




HARDY RLD-l'LOWLHEU URUNliA (O. XANTIJOSTEMA) IN 
STEEP ROCK-WORK. 



THE ROCK-GARDEN 95 

garden for the hardy Opuntias. They are the more 
desirable in that they are not only the sole repre- 
sentatives of the large Cactus family that are hardy 
in England, but that they are also desirable flowering 
plants, of large bloom and moderate habit of growth. 
The family comprises so many species of monstrously 
ungainly or otherwise unsightly form that it is for- 
tunate for our gardens that the hardy species should 
be beautiful things. 

Opuntia Raffinesquii has long been with us, and 
more lately we have had the good yellow-bloomed 
species O. camanchica, arenaria, fragilts, and Engel- 
manni. To these with yellow flowers have been 
added still later O. rhodanthe and O. xanthostema. 
They are all North American plants, most of them 
natives of Colorado. They like a place among steep 
rocks in a soil of poor sand and broken limestone, in 
the hottest exposure. The only thing they dislike in 
our climate is long-continued rain, from which the 
steep rock-wall in a great measure protects them, by 
means of the complete drainage that it secures. 

We have a fine example of good rock-gardening 
accessible to the public in the Royal Gardens, Kew. 
Here there is not only a copious collection of moun- 
tain plants of the kinds suitable for rock-gardens and 
their immediate neighbourhood, but we see them as 
well arranged as is possible in an establishment that, 
it must be remembered, is primarily botanical ; indeed 
the way in which the gardens have been of late years 
enriched with large breadths of bulbous plants in 



96 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

grass and beautiful flowering shrubs, not in single 
specimens only, but in bold groups, has been a power- 
ful means of instruction, and has done as much as 
anything to help people to know the good plants and 
how best to use them. 

There is a beautiful rock-garden in the grounds of 
Messrs. Backhouse of York, a firm well known for 
their admirable collection of Alpine plants. It is most 
instructive to see in this fine garden some of the 
difficult Alpine plants looking perfectly at home. 

The growth of interest in rock-plants has neces- 
sarily given an immense impetus to horticultural 
trade and allied crafts, for there are other good 
firms that make a specialty of constructing rock- 
gardens, while the success that is attained may be 
seen by the illustrations. Indeed, rock-gardens and 
Alpine gardens great and small, carefully made and 
intelligently planted, may now be seen throughout the 
country. 

In planting the rock-garden it is a good plan to 
allot fairly long stretches of space to nearly related 
and nearly allied plants, especially to those genera 
that contain many desirable species and varieties. 
Several genera will be largely represented ; of these 
the principal are Saxifraga, Sedum, Sempervivum, Cam- 
panula, Silene, Linaria, Iberis, Iris, Draba, Dianthus, 
and Primula. This way of grouping, if well arranged 
with some intergrouping of smaller plants, will not 
only have the best effect but will have a distinct 
botanical interest ; not botanical in the drier sense of 
mere classification, but botanical as a living exposition 




IN THE ROCK-GARDEN AT THE ROYAL GARDENS, NEW. 




A liAXK OF SI'NI\C-FLOlVEIU.\C, ALl'IXIi 

ArHuii-.i lA, inc.) IN Till-: noTANic r, 



PLANTS {ARAIHS, 
■Ih'JJHX. HATH. 




POOL IN THE ROCK-GARDEN OF MESSRS. BACKHOUSE OF YORK. 




MESSRS. BACKHOUSE'S ROCK GARDEN AT YQRK. 



THE ROCK-GARDEN 



97 



of variation of form within the law of a common 
structure. 

Besides the grouping in families, the following list 
contains, bracketed together, names of plants that 
have a good effect when grouped near each other : — 



r Lithospermmn prostratum. 
\ Cheiran/hus alpinus. 
\ Arabis lucida variegata. 
[ Achillea uinbellata. 

Antennaria toinentosa. 

Armeria vulgaris. 

A. cephalotes. 
^ Saxifraga (encrusted vars.). 

{Linaria hepaticcBfolia. 
L. pallida. 
Small Ferns. 
( Cardamine pratensis fl. pi. 
J Arenaria balearica. 
y Mossy Saxifrage. 
/ Aiibrietia grceca, &c. 
J Arabis albida. 
I Iberis sempervirens. 
\ Cerastiuni tovientosum. 

(Iberis corre(zfolia. 
Phacelia campanularia(?,o\^\\). 
Mossy Saxifrage. 
( Cornus canadensis. 
\ Waldsteinea fragarioides. 
( Adonis vernalis. 
\ Tulipa sylvestris. 

{Tunica Saxifraga. 
Saponaria ocymoides. 
Di an thus deltoides. 
f Vescicaria utriculata. 
y Cheiranthus mutabilis. 



I Silene alpestris. 
I Campanula ptilla. 
( Saxifraga utnbrosum. 
\ Anthericuni liliastruni. 
I Silene maritimafl.pl. 
\ Othonnopsis cheirifolia. 

Iris cristata. 

Corydalis capnoides. 
C Tiarella cordifolia. 
X Myosotis dissiiiflora major. 
\ Mertensia virginica. 
{ Ramondia pyrenaica. 
\ Haberlea rhodopensis. 
\ Cystopteris fragilis. 

{Dianthus alpi7ius. 
Cai'datnine trifoliaia. 
Hutchinsia alpina. 
Achillea Clavenftce. 
Scabiosa Pterocephala. 
I A nemone blanda. 
{ Galanthus Elwesi. 
Iris reticulata. 
Mossy Saxifrage. 
Orobus vermis. 
Aubrietia grceca. 
Veronica satureifolia. 
Silene alpestris. 

(Anemone apennina. 
Trillium grandiflorum. 
Ofnphalodes verna. 



98 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



Some Bulbous Plants for the Rock-Garden 



A CIS autumnalis. 

Triteleia uniflora. 

Crocus species. 

Narcissus minor. 

N. minimus. 

N. Bulbocodiufn 

N. B. citrinus. 

N. juncifolius. 

N. odorus minor. 

N. poeticus verbamts. 

N. triandrus. 

Leucojum vernum. 

Galanthus Elwesii. 

Fritillaria armena. 

F. aurea. 

F. pudica. 

F. Meleagris. 

Oxalis enneaphylla. 

Cyclamen Atkinsii and vars. 

C. Coum. 

C. repafidum. 

C. europcEum. 

Anomantheca cruenta. 

Chionodoxa Lucilice. 

C. sardensis. 

Dodecaiheon, vars. 

Puschkinia libanotica. 

Corydalis bulbosa. 

C. bracteata. 

Sternbergia lutea. 

Tecophilcea cyanocrocus. 

Eucomis punctata. 



Scilla sibirica. 

S. italica alba. 

S. bifolia and vars. 

Muscari botryoides and white 

var. 
M. azureum. 
Tulipa Greigi. 
T. persica. 
T. kaufmanniana. 
T. sylvestris. 
Iris reticulata. 
I. reticulata Krelagei. 
I. DanfordicE. 
I. bakeriana. 
I. balkana. 
I. Cengialti. 
I. olbiensis. 
I. pumila and vars. 
/. Chamceiris. 
I. tolmeana. 
Lilium croceu?n. 
L. longijlorum. 
L. Browni. 
L. Kratneri. 
L. elegans and vars. 
L. tenuifolium. 

Erythronium Dens-canis, vars. 
E. giganteum. 
E. grandiflorum. 
E. Hartwegi. 
Trillium grandiflorum.. 
T. sessile. 



Dwarf Shrubs and Half-shrubby Plants and Others of 
Rather Solid Habit for the Use Advised at p. 86 



Polygala chamcebuxus. 
Polygonum vaccinifolium. 
Dryas octopetala. 



Cornus canadensis. 
Tiarella cordifolia. 
As arum europcetim. 







:ai « 



CO 









"3 js 



^ 



■ '^ 

o -^ ,^ 
^-< "« « 

o 
o 

(^ -g 






THE ROCK-GARDEN 



99 



Salix reticulata. 
Andromeda tetragona. 
Gaultheria procumbens. 
Iberis sempervirens. 
I. correcsfolia. 
Menziesia polifolia. 
Megasea, smaller vars. 



Armeria vulgaris. 

A. cephalotes. 

Genista saggitalis. 

Daphne blagayana. 

D. cneorum. 

Spircea decumbens. 

Erica carnea, and other Heaths. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE ALPINE GARDEN 

This chapter is for the most part a r^sumd of the 
teaching conveyed in some highly interesting and 
instructive letters to The Garden from Mr. Henry 
Correvon of the Jardin Alpin d'Acclimatation at 
Geneva. No one is more intimately acquainted with 
the flora of the Alps than Mr. Correvon, or is better 
able to instruct and advise upon their use and adapta- 
tion to our gardens. 

In making an Alpine garden, and considering what 
plants are to adorn it, it must be remembered that in 
the mountains of Europe there are whole chains that 
are of limestone and others that are entirely of granite. 
Many of the failures in our rock and Alpine gardens 
are due to this fact either being unknown or dis- 
regarded. Each of those two great main geological 
formations has a flora proper to itself. It stands to 
reason, therefore, that if we plant a shrub or herb that 
belongs to the granite on a calcareous soil, or a lime- 
stone plant on granite, that we are only inviting 
failure. 

It is true that there are a good many Alpine plants 
that will grow in almost any soil, and a number of 




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THE ALPINE GARDEN loi 

others that are fairly well content with one that is not 
their own, but there are a certain number that are not 
so tolerant, and if we would do the very best we can 
for the lovely plants of the mountain regions they 
should be given the kind of soil and rock that suits 
them best. 

From its very beginning then, if an Alpine garden 
is to be made in a calcareous soil let it be planted 
with the lime-loving plants and those that are tolerant 
in the matter of soil, but not with those that demand 
granite. Hitherto the mistakes of amateurs may have 
been excused, because in the books and plant lists 
that have till now been available the great importance 
of this has not been clearly and concisely put before 
them. 

If the Alpine garden is to accommodate a larger 
range of plants than those proper to the one soil, or 
if preparation from the first has to be made for plants 
of these two geological divisions, it is well that one 
distinct portion of the garden should be prepared 
with limestone and the other with granite. In this 
way it will not only be easier to work the garden and 
to know the destination of any newcomer, but the 
plants themselves will be in better harmony. I would 
earnestly counsel intending planters, if they have to 
do with a small space only, to be content with plants 
of the one or the other class of soil, because, as in 
all other kinds of gardening, the mere dotting of 
one plant, or of two or three only of a kind, will 
never make a beautiful garden, but at the best can 



I02 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

only show a kind of living herbarium. Single 
examples of these lovely little children of the great 
mountains may be delightful things to have, and in 
the very smallest spaces no doubt will be all that is 
possible ; but we wish to consider gardening in its 
nobler aspects, not merely the successful cultivation 
of single specimens of the Alpine flora. 

In planning an important Alpine garden it should 
be remembered that in preparing homes for some of 
the best of these lovely plants, not only the rocky 
places must be considered, but the grassy ones as 
well, for the pasture land of the Alps is as bright with 
flowers as the more rocky portions. It is here that 
are found the Snowflakes and the Snowdrops, the 
Dog's-tooth Violets and the Anemones of the Pulsatilla 
group. Here also are the glorious Gentiana acaulis, 
the bright gem-like G. verna, and in boggy places 
G. bavarica^ near in size to G. verna, and sometimes 
mistaken for it, but different in the shape and 
arrangement of its more crowded leaves, and in the 
still more penetrating briUiancy of its astounding blue. 
These little gems are not often seen at their best in 
English gardens, but G. acaulis is a much more willing 
colonist, and in some gardens where the soil is a rich 
loam it grows rapidly and flowers abundantly and 
proves one of the best of plants for a garden edging. 
Though properly a plant of the pastures, the illustra- 
tion shows how kindly it takes to the rock-garden 
in England. 

The difficulty of imitating the close short turf of 



THE ALPINE GARDEN 103 

the upland Alpine pasture is that here the grasses 
grow too rank and tall ; the only ones therefore 
that should be employed are the smallest of the wiry- 
leaved kinds, such as the short Sheep's Fescue with 
the tufted base. 

A true Alpine garden, it should be understood, is 
a place where plants native to the Alps alone are 
grown. It should not be confused with a general 
rock-garden where we have mountain and other 
plants from the whole temperate world. 

Besides those that one generally classes as plants, 
meaning flowering plants, there will be many of the 
beautiful small Ferns of the Alps to ^be considered, 
and the small shrubs whose presence is so important 
in the more prominent eminences of our rock-gardens 
and the tops of our rock-walls. Of the latter, in the 
true Alpine garden, the most important are the dwarf 
Rhododendrons, and nothing could be so fitting a 
groundwork or setting for the little bright-blossomed 
jewels that will be their companions. Especially in 
the mass and when out of flower, their compact form 
and dark rich colouring are extremely helpful in 
securing a feeling of repose in the composition of the 
main blocks of the rocky region, while their beautiful 
bloom makes them, when in flower, some of the 
loveliest of dwarf shrubs. 

Here again it must be noticed that care must be 
taken to suit each kind with its geological require- 
ment. The genus Rhododendron is represented by 
three species in the Alps ; in those of Switzerland 



I04 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

by R. ferriiginiuDi and R. hirsutum, and in those of 
the Tyrol by R. Chamcecistus. Still further east, in 
the Eastern Carpathians, is found R. myrtifolimn. It 
is with the two Swiss kinds that our rock-gardens are 
mostly concerned, though R. inyrtifolium is also of 
value, and will grow in many soils, though it prefers 
sandy peat. Of these Swiss kinds R. ferruginitim is a 
plant of the granite, while hirsutum belongs to the 
limestone, as does also the R. Chamcecistus of the Tyrol. 

Subjoined are lists of plants proper to the two 
main geological divisions. It will be seen that in 
each genus the species seem to be nearly equally 
divided, so that in a garden devoted to one or other 
there would be no exclusion of any of the more 
important kinds of plants. Those that will do well 
in either soil are not included in the list. If in the 
case of some plants proper to the one formation we 
find in England that they can be grown in the other, 
it will not affect the general utility of these lists, which 
are meant to point out the conditions under which 
only they are found in nature, and under which they 
thrive best in gardens. It must also be understood 
that the lists do not aim at being complete. They 
comprise only the most characteristic examples of the 
species special in nature to the limestone and the 
granite, and that have been tried and proved either 
in the Jardin d'Acclimatation at Geneva, or at one of 
the two experirhental stations in the mountains that are 
on the limestone and on the granite respectively. 

It must also be understood that a good number of 



THE ALPINE GARDEN 105 

the Alpine plants that we are familiar with, that are 
tolerant of a variety of soils, and that are so well 
represented in the best trade lists, do not appear 
here ; so that if it is not convenient to supply any 
plants with either granite or limestone, those named 
in the following lists may either be avoided, or we 
may be content with what success we may have in 
such a soil as we are able to give them. 

There are certain plants of the higher Alpine regions 
that are usually failures in English rock-gardens, of 
which Eritrichiuin nanuni may be taken as a type. 
Others in the same list of what we know as difficult 
plants are : Androsace glacialis, Charpeniieri, helvetica, 
pubescens, wulfeniana, and imbricata ; Achillea nana, 
Thlaspi rotundifolium, Artemisia spicata ; Campanula 
cenisia, Allionii, excisa, petrcea ; Saxifraga Seguieri 
planifolia, and stenopetala. 

In order to succeed with these plants they must 
have the poorest possible soil ; only a coarse gravel 
of small stones with a little sandy peat ; such a soil 
as will always be poor, light, and porous ; in one con- 
taining more nutriment they simply die of indigestion. 
The drainage must be perfect. They delight in full 
exposure and sun heat, and will succeed either in a 
wall or the flatter rock-garden, though here they are 
much benefited by the ground around them being 
covered with little stones in order to keep it cool. 

The following is a list of plants proper to the cal- 
careous and granitic formations respectively : — 



io6 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



Calcareous 

Achillea atrata. 
Aconitum Anihora. 
Adenostylis alpina. 
Androsace chamcejastne. 

„ arachnoidea. 

„ helvetica. 

„ pubescens. 

„ villosa. 
Anemone alpina. 

„ narcissijlora. 

„ Pulsatilla. 

„ Hepatica. 
Anthyllis montana. 
Artemisia mutellina. 
Braya alpina. 
Campanula thyrsoidea. 

„ cenisia. 

Cephalaria alpina. 
Cyclamen europ(Eum. 
Daphne alpi7ta. 

„ Cneorum. 
Dianthus alpinus. 
Draba tomcntosa. 
Erica carnea. 
Eryngium alpinum. 
Erinus alpinus. 
Gentiana alpina. 

„ angustifolia. 

„ Clusii. 

„ ciliata, 

„ asclepiadea. 
Geranium aconitifoliunt. 
Globularias. 

Gnaphalium Leontopodium. 
Gypsophila repens. 
Lychnis Flos-jovis. 
Moehringia muscosa. 



Granitic 

Achillea nwschata. 
Aconitum septenirionale. 
Adenostylis albifrons. 
Androsace carnea. 

„ lactea. 

„ glacialis. 

„ imbricata. 

„ vitaliana. 

A nemone sulphurea. 

„ baldensis. 

„ montana. 

„ vernal is. 
Arnica montana. 
Artemisia glacialis. 
Astrantia minor. 
Azalea procumbens. 
Braya pinnatifida. 
Campanula spicata. 
„ excisa. 

Daphne petrcea. 
,, striata. 
Dianthus glacialis. 
Draba frigida. 
Ephedra helvetica. 
Eritrichium nanum. 
Gentiana brachyphylla. 

„ Kochiana. 

„ frigida. 

„ Pneumonanthe. 

„ pyrenaica. 
Geranitim argenteuvi. 
Gnaphalium supinum. 
Linncsa borealis. 
Lychnis alpina. 
Memn athamanticum. 
Oxytropis campestris. 
Papaver rhceticum. 




■J 

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O < 

b^ ft; 

a: 
[^ 

O 

a. 



THE ALPINE GARDEN 



loy 



Calcareous 
Oxytropis m on tana. 
Papaver alpinum. 
Primula Auricula. 
„ clusiana. 
„ integrifolia. 
„ minima. 
„ spedabilis. 
Ranunculus alpestris. 
„ Seguieri. 

Rhododendron hirsutum. 
Ribes petraum . 
Saussurea discolor. 
Saxifraga longifolia. 
ccesia. 

diapensioides. 
burseriana. 
tombeanensis, 
squarrosa. 
media, 
aretioides. 
Senecio abrotanifolius. 

„ aurantiacus. 
Sempervivum dolomiticum. 
„ Mr turn. 

„ Neilreichii. 

„ Pittoni. 

„ tectorum. 

Silene acaulis. 
„ alpestris. 
„ Elizabethce. 
„ vallesia. 
Valeriana saxatilis. 
Viola cenisia. 



Granitic 
Phyteuma hemisphcericum. 

„ pauciflorum. 
Primula hirsuta. 
„ glutinosa. 
,, wulfeniana. 
„ Facchi7iii. 
„ longiflora. 
Ranunculus crenatus. 
,, glacialis. 

Rhododendron ferrugineum. 
Ribes alpinum. 
Saussurea alpina. 
Saxifraga Cotyledon. 
„ Hirculus. 

„ Seguieri. 

„ moschata. 
„ aspera. 

„ bryoides. 

„ ajugcefolia. 

„ exarata. 

„ retusa. 

Senecio unijlorus. 

„ carniolicus. 
Sempervivum arachnoideum. 
„ acuminattim. 

„ debit e. 

„ Caudini. 

„ Wulfeni. 

Silene exscapa. 
„ rupestris. 
„ pumilio. 
„ quadrifida. 
Vaccinium uliginosum. 

„ oxycoccus. 
Valeriana celtica. 

„ Saliunca. 

Veronica fruticulosa. 
Viola comollia. 



io8 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



Ferns 



Cystopteris alpina. 

„ mo ft tana. 

Aspidium Lonchiiis. 
Asplenium Selovi. 

„ fontanum. 

viride. 



Woodsia hyperborea. 

„ ilvensis. 
Blechnum spicant. 
Allosorus crispus. 
Asplenium germanicutn. 
,, septentrionale. 



CHAPTER XIV 

LAKES AND LARGE PONDS 

Except in the case of Water-Lilies I have often noticed 
that the smaller the pool or pond in which orna- 
mental water-plants are grown the better one is able 
to enjoy them. In the large pond, and still more in 
the lake whose length is measured by miles, the scale 
of the water surface is so large, and the visible extent 
of land and water so wide, that one does not feel 
the want of the small water-plants nearly so much 
as one desires a bold treatment of tree and bush, and 
such fine things as will make handsome groups upon 
the shore and masses in the middle and further dis- 
tance. If I had a large space of water, with land 
more or less bare and featureless sloping to it, I 
should begin by planting a good extent of the coolest 
and dampest slope with Spruce Fir, bringing some 
of the trees right down to the water's edge. 

The Spruce would be planted as far apart as they 
were to stand when full grown, but more thinly to 
the water's edge, so that here, as they grew, they 
could be thinned by degrees till they stood in good 
groups. Birches would also be planted near the 
water, and would show as graceful silver-stemmed 
trees standing reflected in the lake and backed by a 



no WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

dense forest of Spruce. Scotch Fir is also beautiful 
near water, especially in hilly ground, and it might 
be better to plant Scotch than Spruce if the land was 
very poor and sandy. But Spruce is essentially a 
damp - loving Conifer, and nothing gives a more 
solemn dignity to a water landscape than a large 
extent of its sombre richness of deep colouring, espe- 
cially when this is accentuated by the contrast of 
the silver Birches. 

If the soil is strong or of a rich alluvial nature 
Alders will grow to a large size, forming great rounded 
masses. But some smaller matters will also be wanted 
to give interest to the lake shore, so that here will 
be clumps of the Royal Fern {Osmunda), and the 
graceful Lady Fern, and where the path passes there 
should be clumps of Water Elder ( Viburnum Opulus) 
giving its pretty white bloom in early summer and 
its heavy-hanging bunches of shining half-transparent 
berries in the autumn months, when the leaves also 
turn of a fine crimson colour. 

The sunny bank of the lake I should keep rather 
open and grassy, with only occasional brakes of bushy 
growth of Thorn and Holly, wild Rose and Honey- 
suckle, with woodland planting of Oak and Hazel, 
Thorn, Holly, and Birch beyond. 

If the lake or large pond is in flat low-lying country 
the large growing Poplars and Willows named 
in the next chapter will suit its banks or near 
neighbourhood. 











tv»^4^ >A 7 >>^ 




Ac- -^ 



<^^^l?l^^ 






-^'>:^ 



CHAPTER XV 

SMALL PONDS AND POOLS 

It is probably in the smaller ponds and pools, or in 
river banks and back-waters, that most pleasure in 
true water-gardening may be had. 

Every one who has known the Thames from the 
intimate point of view of the leisured nature-lover in 
boat or canoe, must have been struck by the eminent 
beauty of the native water-side plants ; indeed our 
water-gardens would be much impoverished if we 
were debarred from using some of these. Many of 
them are among the most pictorial of plants. There 
is nothing of the same kind of form or carriage among 
exotics that can take the place of the Great Water- 
Dock {Rumex Hydrolapathuin), with its six feet of 
height and its large long leaves that assume a gor- 
geous autumn colouring. Then for importance as 
well as refinement nothing can be better than the 
Great Water Plantain, with leaves not unlike those of 
the Fimkia but rather longer in shape. Then there 
is the Great Reed {Phragmites) and the Reedmace 
that we call Bulrush {Typhd), and the true Bulrush 
{Scirpus) that gives the rushes for rush -bottomed 
chairs — all handsome things in the water close to the 
bank. 



112 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

Flowering Rush {Butomus) makes one think that 
here is some tropical beauty escaped from a hot-house, 
so striking is its umbel of rosy bloom carried on the 
tall, round, dark-green stem. It has the appearance 
of a plant more fitted to accompany the Papyrus and 
blue Water-Lily of ancient Egypt than to be found 
at home in an English river. This charming plant 
would look well near Equisetum Telmateia, which 
would grow close down to the water's edge. 

The yellow Iris of our river banks is also an in- 
dispensable plant for the water-garden, and will do 
equally well just in the water or just out of it. Not 
unlike its foliage is that of the Sweet Sedge {Acorus 
Calamus), fairly frequent by the river bank. I have 
driven my boat's nose into a clump of it when about 
to land on the river bank, becoming aware of its 
presence by the sweet scent of the bruised leaves. 

The branched Bur-reed {Sparganium ramosuni) has 
somewhat the same use as the Sweet Sedge in the 
water-garden, making handsome growths of pale- 
green luscious-looking foliage, and spikes of bloom 
that are conspicuous for the class of plant ; it is re- 
lated to the Chair- Rush {Scirpus). It grows in very 
shallow water and in watery mud. The Cyperus 
Sedge {Carex pseudo-Cyperus) is also handsome for 
much the same use. 

Of the floating river flowers the earliest to bloom 
is the large Water Buttercup {Ranunculus floribundus) ; 
its large quantity of white bloom is very striking. 
Where this capital plant has been established there 
might be a good planting of Marsh Marigold near it 



■■•' '' t- " - ■;':-iri,5"-rv-.'»y .. • " *' «'- 
. ■ v 'j^rB .••'."'at"' , <ki..k 




SMALL PONDS AND POOLS 113 

on the actual pond edge. The two look very well 
together, and all the better with a good stretch of the 
dark Chair-Rush behind them. One point of botani- 
cal interest in the Water Buttercup is its two distinct 
sets of leaves ; those under water divided into many 
hair-like segments, while those that float are flatter 
and wider. It has been noticed that when the plant 
grows in swiftly running water, which would tend to 
submerge the upper leaves, they disappear, and the 
finely divided ones only remain. 

The charming Villarsia nymphcsoides, with fringed 
yellow bloom, though not a common plant, may be 
found here and there on the Thames, sometimes in 
large quantities. It grows in water three to four feet 
deep or even more ; its small, thick, rounded leaves 
looking like those of a tiny Water-Lily. Each neat 
little plant is anchored by a strong round flexible 
stem to the root in the mud. It is well worthy of a 
place in the water-garden. I used to get the plants 
up by dragging the bottom with a long-handled rake, 
and transferred them to the pond of more than one 
friend. If a place is chosen a little shallower than 
their original home and a stone tied to each root, 
they will soon establish themselves and make a good 
patch the next year. It likes still but not stagnant 
water. 

The Arrow-Head {Sagittarid) is another handsome 
native thing that likes a place near the pond or river 
edge. There are other and still better species, one 
American and one Chinese, and a good double- 
flowered variety. 

H 



114 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

Frog-bit is another pretty floating plant, with heart- 
shaped leaves and habit of growth not unlike Villarsia. 

The Water Soldier {Stratiotes) is a curious thing 
and handsome in its way. The whole plant is not 
unlike the bunch of spiny-edged foliage in the top 
of a Pine Apple, but of a dark bottle-green colour 
and a foot long. It grows at the bottom, rising only 
to flower and then sinks again. It is more a curiosity 
than a militant water-garden ornament, but it certainly 
gives interest to a watery region to know that this 
strange thing is there and that with luck one may be 
on the spot to see it flower. 

The Butter-bur {Petasites), with its large leaves a 
foot or more across, makes a great effect as a foliage 
plant on the pond edge, or where a space of very 
shallow slope comes down to the water. 

The Buckbean {Menyarithes) is one of the prettiest 
of English flowers. Its home is the muddy edge of 
river or pond or very wet bog ; it does not need run- 
ning water. The leaves are rather like three leaves 
of Broad Bean, joined into a large trefoil ; they stand 
up out of the water. The flowers, which also stand 
well up, are a spike of pretty pink bloom ; the whole 
blossom is delicately veined by a fringing of white hairs. 
It is a plant of the Gentian tribe, as is also the Villarsia. 
The Summer Snowflake {Leucojuvi cestivum) is beauti- 
ful beside the pond or pool ; in strong alluvial soil 
growing to a surprising size. It is one of the best of 
plants for growing in quantity in tufts like Daffodils ; 
indeed in meadow land by stream or pond the two 
plants would meet and amalgamate happily, the 



SMALL PONDS AND POOLS 115 

damper places of the Daffodils agreeing with the 
drier of the Snowflake. Here again the addition of 
groups of Marsh Marigold would come very well. 

There are still three important wild river-side plants 
that are worthy ornaments of the water edge. The 
Yellow Loosestrife {Lysiniachid) and the purple Loose- 
strife {Ly thrum) ; both are excellent things to use in 
large masses at the edge of pond or pool. Of the 
Lythrum there is an improved kind with still brighter 
flowers than the type. Here is also the Tansy, a 
plant that makes a considerable show with its large 
level-topped corymbs of hard yellow flower. It is a 
plant that will grow anywhere, but is especially luxu- 
riant near water. 

The Water- Violet {Hottonia palustris), in the fore- 
ground of the picture at page 119, is another pretty 
native that must have a place in the water-garden. It 
should be somewhere near the path in rather shallow 
still water, so that the tufts of submerged leaves can 
be seen as well as the flower-spikes. 

So far no plant has been named that is not wild in 
England, and yet here already is a goodly company ; 
indeed the foreign plants for the water-garden are 
not so very many in number though they are ex- 
tremely important. 

The two great Gunneras, herbaceous plants with 
enormous radical leaves, something like the leaves of 
Heracleum six times magnified, are noble plants for the 
water's edge. The illustration shows Gunnera manicata 
at Mr. Wilson's garden at Wisley, well placed on the 



ii6 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

further side of a small pond. No plant can be more 
important in the water-garden ; but its scale is so large 
and its whole appearance so surprising that it is well 
to let it have a good space to itself. The Gunneras 
are natives of the cooler mountain regions of the north 
of South America, but have proved hardy in England 
in all but the most trying climates. They are splendid 
in Cornwall and the south-west of Ireland. 

A most important water-side plant is from Japan, 
the beautiful Iris IcBvigata. It rejoices in rich moist 
soil close to the edge of the water. 

Another water-loving Iris of the easiest culture, 
liking a damp place by the water, is /. sibirica, with 
its larger variety orientalis. If the two are planted 
together and young ones are grown from seed, which 
is borne freely and easily germinates, a whole range 
of beautiful forms will ensue. There are already 
several colourings of /. sibirica, the white being of 
special beauty, but all are good flowers, with their 
thick tuft of leaves gracefully bending over and their 
daintily veined flowers borne on perfectly upright 
stems. This Iris has the hollow reed-like stem that 
proclaims it a water-loving plant. 

The Cape has sent us a delightful water-plant in 
Aponogeton distachyorij very easily grown in a shallow 
pond or tank. It has neat oval floating leaves and 
curious whitish flowers that fork into two flowery 
prongs ; they have a white alabaster-like appearance 
and a scent like Hawthorn. 

From North America comes one of the very best 
water-plants, Pondeteria cordata, beautiful alike in its 




NYMPHS A ODOR AT A, WITH BUCKBEAN (MENYANTHES) AND 
YELLOW LOOSESTRIFE {LYSIMACHIA) AT THE 
POND MARGIN. 



SMALL PONDS AND POOLS 117 

bold leaf and blue bloom. It flourishes in rather 
shallow water and is quite easy to grow. The upright 
habit of growth of its leafy flower-stems is unusual 
among aquatic plants. 

The Thalictrums should not be forgotten ; they are 
suited for much the same kind of massing on land at 
the water edge as the Loosestrifes. T. flavum, the 
cultivated and improved form of a native plant, being 
the finest. 

The large white Daisy, Leiicanthemuni lacustre, though 
truly a plant for wet ground and water edge, I always 
think has a flower-garden look about it that seems to 
make it less fit for water-gardening, where one wishes 
to preserve the sentiment of the more typical water-side 
and truly aquatic vegetation. 

It would be well that a good planting of Rhodo- 
dendrons should, at one of its ends or sides, come 
against a pond, though these shrubs are too large in 
size and too overwhelming in their mass of bloom to 
combine with smaller plants. But in connection with 
a pond of Water-Lilies, the dark foliage of Rhodo- 
dendrons, coming down to one shore and backed by 
the deep shade of further trees, preferably Spruce for 
the sake of their deep quiet colouring, would be a 
noble background for the white and tender tints of 
the Nymphaeas ; and as the Rhododendrons would 
have done flowering before the main blooming season 
of the Water- Lilies, the two sources of interest would 
not clash. This would be much to the advantage of 
both, while each would be suited with a place both 
fitting in appearance and suited to its needs. 



ii8 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

I venture to entreat those who are about to plant 
Rhododendrons in watery places not to plant them, 
as has been done so often, on a small round island. 
I lived for twenty years in a pretty place of some 
fifty acres where there were three streams and two 
good-sized ponds. In one of the ponds were three 
islands, two of them of fair size and closely wooded 
with Alders and large Grey Poplars and smaller under- 
wood, but the third and smallest was the worst form 
of small round pudding of Rhododendrons, about 
thirty feet across. When ponds are being artificially 
made it is tempting to leave islands, and if well 
arranged and planted they may be beautiful, although, 
in nearly all cases, except where there is unlimited 
space, a promontory is more pictorial, and favours in 
a greater degree the sense of mystery as to the extent 
of the water and the direction of the unseen shore. 

If there is or must be a small island it is far better 
to plant it with an Alder and a group of Silver Birch. 
The rounded forms of the Rhododendrons add pain- 
fully to the rounded dumpiness of the little island. 
It is better to group them on the shore and to plant 
the island with something of upright form that will 
give beautiful reflection in the water, or to let it be 
covered with non-woody vegetation. 

The common Rhododendron ponticum, with one or 
two of bold growth that have white flowers, such 
as " Minnie," and some of the tall, free lilac- whites 
such as Album grmidiflorum and Album elegans, will 
make the best possible combination. If with these 
there are some groups of Silver Birch, and the 




POPLARS BY THE STREAM-SIDE. WATER-VIOLET {HOTTONIA) 
IN THE FOREGROUND. 



SMALL PONDS AND POOLS 119 

whole shows against a background of Spruce Fir, 
it will probably be as noble a use of these grand 
flowers as could be combined in a half wild place. 

Here, even more than in a garden, where also it 
is often seen and always to be regretted, an uncon- 
sidered mixture of the various colours of the many 
Rhododendron hybrids should be carefully avoided ; 
moreover, the foliage in individuals differs so much 
in character, that in grouping kinds together this 
should be considered as well as the colour of the 
bloom. There is perfect safety in the group as ad- 
vised above, its constituents all having the handsome 
dark-green long-shaped leaves that is so good an 
attribute of R. ponticum and its nearest relations. 

The ponderous masses of Rhododendrons near 
water are much improved by good groupings of 
Silver Birches, an association always to be advised ; 
indeed a shallow valley of rather damp peaty soil 
leading to water, where the wild Birches are thor- 
oughly at home, is the very place for Rhododendrons. 
When both come down to the water's edge, and the 
dark evergreen masses with the graceful silver-backed 
stems are reflected in the still water, it shows about 
as good a picture of wild gardening with shrub and 
tree as may well be, and one that is scarcely less 
beautiful in winter than it is in summer. 

Of other trees and bushes of the water-side, Willows 
and Poplars are the most important. The White 
Willow {Salix alba) becomes a good-sized tree. There 
are occasionally places where the Weeping Willow 
can be planted with good effect, perhaps for pre- 



I20 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

ference at the edge of small pools. But much more 
generally useful are the Willows or Osiers with 
highly-coloured bark, especially the Cardinal and the 
Golden Osiers. In winter they quite light up the 
water-side landscape with their cheerful colouring, 
which is all the more brilliant if they are cut down 
every year ; the young rods bearing the brighter 
bark. Nearly as bright in winter is the Red Dog- 
wood, also willing to grow near water. 

The Poplars are the largest of the deciduous trees 
for the river or pond side or anywhere in damp 
ground. Grand great trees they are — the White, the 
Grey, the Black and also the Aspen Poplar ; but 
grandest of all and the most pictorial is the tall 
upright Lombardy Poplar. 

Sometimes nearly a straight line of these tall trees 
will occur near a river, and often have they been so 
planted with the very best effect ; the strangely clear 
contrasting line of straight tall tree and level water 
being acutely accentuated when the one is reflected 
in the other. 

As mentioned in the last chapter the Spruce and 
its varieties are damp-loving things. The handsome 
American Hemlock Spruce is one of the finest, and 
a grand tree for the water-side or for any damp 
ground. 

Quinces also love a damp place, and as true water- 
side bushes are not many in number they should be 
more freely planted, for not only do they give a har- 
vest of excellent fruit, but they are beautiful bushes 
or small trees. Moreover, they are good at all times 




ROCKY STREAM-GARDEN AND LILY-POOL. BY MESSRS. VEITCH, 

OF EXETER. 



SMALL PONDS AND POOLS 121 

of the year — in flower, in fruit, and when the leaves 
are gone, for then the remarkable grace of the 
little tree can best be seen. For this use the old 
English Quince, with the smooth roundish fruits, is 
by far the best, the varieties that bear the largest 
pear-shaped fruit being not nearly so graceful in 
habit. 

The native Water Elder ( Viburnum Opulus) is a 
grand bush or small tree, and should be largely 
planted by the water-side. Where garden meets 
water, is one of the many and one of the best of 
places for its derivative, the Guelder Rose. Among 
foreign hardy bushes one above all is precious for 
the water-side, the Snowdrop Tree {Halesia tetraptera) 
from North America. I have grown it both as bush 
and tree ; and in every shape, and for all garden uses, 
have found it one of the very best of deciduous 
flowering shrubs. 

The pond water-garden naturally leads to the bog- 
garden ; indeed the tendency of the valley pond to 
silt up at its upper end, where the stream that feeds it 
lets fall the lighter particles it has held suspended and 
leaves the heavier ones that it has driven along its bed, 
points to this region of boggy deposit, narrowing to 
the true stream, as the proper place to grow many 
bog-plants. 

Here, in the case of many swamp-loving things, will 
be found ready made, quite as good if not better places 
than could possibly be prepared for them, while other 
spaces within the moist influence of the region can 
easily be adapted for others that we may wish to grow. 



122 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

Moreover, in the naturally silted bog there will pro- 
bably be already that handsome groundwork of great 
tussocks of Sedge or stretches of Reed or Rush that 
will secure that valuable sense of unity and cohesion 
of the whole place, while at the same time they will 
make a distinct and easy separation between any such 
group of flowering plants as one may wish to see 
undisturbed by the view of the group that is next to 
follow. 

It will be greatly to the advantage of a portion of 
this region if there is a copse-like growth of something 
that will give summer shade ; for many are the lovely 
plants that are not exactly marsh plants, but that like 
ground that is always cool and rather moist. In the 
wettest of this would be a plantation of Primula de?t- 
Hculata, a grand plant indeed when grown in long 
stretches in damp ground at the edge of a hazel copse, 
when its luscious leaves and round heads of lilac 
flower are seen quite at their best. Several others of 
the Asiatic Primroses like such a place better than any 
other. Next to it, and only divided by some clumps of 
Lady Fern, would be the equally wet-loving P. sik- 
kimensis, and then a further drift of P. japoiiica. 

The two latter kinds come easily from seed ; P. 
denticulata increases so fast and divides so well that 
there is no need to grow it from seed. The type 
colour of P. japonica, a crimson inclining to magnate, 
is unpleasant to my eye and to that of many others, 
but seedlings of a much better, though quite as bright 
a colour, have been obtained, and also a pretty low- 
toned white, with many intermediate pinkish shade. 



SMALL PONDS AND POOLS 123 

The soft lemon colour of the hanging bells of P. sik- 
kimensis makes it one of the prettiest of woodland 
plants. 

Two beautiful Indian Primroses of a smaller size 
that also like a damp place, though less shade, are 
P. rosea and P. involiicrata Monroi ; the latter seldom 
seen in gardens, though it is one of the most charming 
of hardy Primulas. These two gems, and our native 
tiny P . farinosa, should be close to the path in moist, 
mossy, peaty ground. Also near the path should be a 
good planting of the brilliant Mimulus cupretis, well 
known but much neglected ; in appearance it would 
suit the neighbourhood of the Bog Asphodel, the latter 
in a rather moister hollow with Sphagnum. 

In the same cool and rather damp copse-edge the 
Alpine Willow-leaved Gentian {G. asclepiaded) will be 
glad of a place, and also the North American G. 
Andrewsii that flowers in October, and in the cool 
leafy mould of the copse the Canadian Bloodroot 
{Sanguinaria), Trilliuuis, and the fine Californian 
Erythronium {E. giganteum), should be in some 
quantity ; for though they are also delightful plants 
to have even in a moderate patch, yet their true use is 
to be in such generous masses that they form distinct 
features in the woodland landscape. In this way of 
bold planting, no one who has seen them disposed in 
long-shaped rather parallel drifts, having some relation 
either to the trend of the ground, or the direction of 
the woodland path, or the disposal of the masses of 
tree or undergrowth, or some such guiding impulse, 
will ever be content with a less careful mode of plant- 



124 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

ing. This applies equally to Daffodils, whose place 
will also be here as well as in other woody spaces. It 
is of less importance with the wood plants whose 
flowers are less showy, such as Lily of the Valley and 
Smilacina, though even with these some consideration 
of the form of the ground in relation to the shape of 
their masses will give much better grouping ; the 
result showing as a piece of skilled work rather than 
as a bungle. As the ground rises, and, though still in 
cool woodland, is assured of perfect drainage, these 
dainty little woodlanders will be happy. Further back 
there will be Solomon's Seal and here again White 
Foxglove. Presently there will be the wild Wood 
Sorrel and the native wood Anemone, and perhaps 
one of the larger-flowered single kinds of the same. 

As the wood walk approaches the garden there will 
be the beautiful blue Anemone nemorosa robinsoniana 
and A. apennina, and near them the best of the three 
North American Uvularias {U. gratidiflord) and the 
handsome white Dentaria of Alpine woods. Here 
also will be our own Purple Orchis and the Spanish 
Squills {Scilla campanulata) with the white variety 
of our native Wood Hyacinth or Squill, all closely 
related. 

But woodland matters, though tempting, not being 
within the scope of the subject of the present volume, 
must, however regretfully, be let pass with but scant 
notice. 

The old castle and its moat offer some pleasant 
places for gardening both in wall and water. In the 



SMALL PONDS AND POOLS 125 

case of this old Kentish castellated house the origin- 
ally enclosed space is extremely restricted. The over- 
growth of Ivy on the ancient walls, and the moat half 
choked with Flags and wild Water-Lilies, tell the tale 
of the encroachment of nature. Such a place seems 
almost best as it is ; its own character stands out so 
strongly defined that it would be almost a shock to 
see the last new plants on its walls or in its waters. 
Rather one would be disposed to have only the 
oldest of our garden plants. Garden Roses, Rosemary, 
Lavender, Paeonies, and Irises, and in the water only 
native things ; the Flowering Rush {Butomus), Arrow- 
head, and Buckbean. Incongruity in a case like this 
would seem to be akin to desecration. 

Rocky pools, when cleverly designed and judiciously 
planted, may be among the very best of garden acces- 
sories. But unless there is some knowledge of the 
best ways of disposing the rocks, and some definite 
design, it is best left alone. In the pool-garden 
shown, the rocks, especially on the further 'side of the 
water, are admirably placed, showing their continuous 
natural stratification. But this garden was laid out 
by an owner who would not have tolerated glaring 
geological absurdities, and it was planted with things 
both rare and rightly used, a combination not often 
effected. 

The picture does not show the garden at its best, 
as the water is below the proper level, and leaves an 
unsightly edge of shelving bottom. It has somewhat 
of the character of the Japanese gardens, though it 



126 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

has an advantage over these in that it aims at simple 
beauty of rock and water and vegetation unhampered 
by the strict traditional laws that give the gardens 
of Japan a certain stiffness, and suggest a certain 
whimsicality to the Western eye. 

In some large places there are bathing pools, but 
few have bathing pools that are beautifully planned. 
A bath in running water in the early sunlight of our 
summer days would be a much appreciated addition 
to the delights of many a good garden. It might be 
a beautiful thing in itself, with a long swimming-pool ; 
the lower end in sunlight ; the upper giving access 
to a small building, perhaps of classical design, stand- 
ing in a grove of Ilex, or it might take such a form as 
that of this pool at the Villa d'Este, that wonderful 
Italian garden of wall and water. 

Plants Rooting under Water but Close to 
THE Bank 

Rutnex Hydrolapathum. Butomus uinbellatus. 

Phragmites communis. Typha latifolia. 

Scirpus lacustris. Acorus Calamus. 

Iris Pseud-acorus. Sparganium ramosum. 

A lis ma Plant ago. Carex pseudo-Cyperus. 
Menyanthes trifoliata. 

Plants for Water One to Four Feet Deep 

Ranunculus aquatilis. Villarsia nymphcEoides. 

Sagittaria sagittifolia. Stratiotes aloides. 

Hottonia palustris. Aponogeton distachyon. 
Pondeteria cordata. 




POOL AT THE VILLA D'ESTE. 



SMALL PONDS AND POOLS 127 

Plants for Rooting in Land at Damp Water-side 

Petasites vulgaris. Leucojum cestivum. 

Lysitnachia vulgaris. Caltha palustris (also rooting in 

Lythrum Salicaria. water). 

Gunnera scabra. Iris IcEvigata^ syn. /. Kampferi. 

G. manicaia. I. orientalis. 

Heracleutn mantegazzianum. I. sibirica. 

H. giganteum. Leucanthemum lacustre. 

Thalictrum Jiavum. Equisetum Telmateia. 

Trees for Damp and Water-side Places 

Populus (Poplar), canescens, Salix (Willow) alba, Russelliana. 
nigra, tremula, fastigiata. 

Shrubs for the Water-side 

Cardinal Willow (cut down). Viburnmn C/«/«j(GuelderRose). 

Golden Osier „ „ Cydonia vulgaris (Quince). 

Cornus sanguinea „ „ Halesia tetraptera. 



CHAPTER XVI 

TUBS IN SMALL WATER OR BOG GARDENS 

Where there is not space enough for any approach to 
such a bog and water garden as I have attempted to 
sketch in the last chapter, a good deal may be done 
with small cemented tanks and channels, or even with 
petroleum casks sawn in half and sunk in the ground. 
The tubs can, of course, equally be kept above ground 
if it is preferred, but as I always like to consider all 
garden problems from their best-looking point of view, 
and as the use of the same plants would be advised 
whether the tubs were sunk or not, I will suppose 
that they are sunk so that they are not seen, their 
rims being an inch below ground. They will be so 
placed with regard to each other that they form such 
a chain as will be convenient for allowing the water, 
when it is turned on, to refresh the contents of each 
tub in succession, if it comes by gravitation. Therefore 
each tub, whether near its next neighbour or a little 
way distant from it, must be so placed that there is 
a continuous fall from the first tub to the last. 

If the water is from the mains of a company there 
should be one whole barrel at a higher elevation, with 
a tap near the bottom whose outlet is above the level 

of the highest of the sunk tubs. The water should be 

128 



TUBS IN WATER-GARDENS 129 

let into this supply barrel from a height of a foot or 
so, and will be all the better if it can come through 
a rose-like nozzle that will help to aerate the water 
before it reaches the barrel, in which it should also 
stand some hours (the longer the better) before it is 
let into the sunk tubs. One whole barrelful would 
probably be enough to partly renew, or at any rate to 
refresh, the contents of the water and bog tubs. 

It would be a convenient arrangement for the sunk 
tubs to follow the line of path on one of its sides, with 
space round them for bog-plants ; thus forming the 
section for water-plants of a small rock-garden, whose 
drier raised portion would be on the other side of the 
path. If the little garden is made in level ground, it 
will be well to excavate the space of the path and the 
boggy area by its side to a depth of some eighteen 
inches, and to throw it up on the other side, and to 
arrange the pathway to come into the lowered space 
from either end by some shallow rock steps of the kind 
shown at p. 14. 

The space where the tubs and surrounding bog- 
plants are to be, should be further excavated to quite 
half the depth of the tubs ; then these must be nicely 
let in to their proper depth, and adjusted with the 
necessary fall (about an inch) from one to the other, 
though each should stand quite level. Prepared soil 
will then be filled in to the level of the rims. It 
should be of peat and leaf-mould, with one stiffer 
corner for the few bog-plants that like loam. Then 
the rims of the tubs should be closely covered with 
flat stones that just overlap, laid in such a way that 



I30 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

they do not slavishly follow the circle of the tub edge, 
but rather serve to mask it. These stones may be 
anything from two inches to four inches thick. Now 
the little channel must be made that supplies the 
water. It will look best if it is of the same stones, 
some larger and some smaller, laid as a kind of rough 
little trough on a bed of cement, so that the water is 
carried without loss. There will have to be also a 
slight ridge of cement and stones between the main 
stones that cover the tub edges, so that the water shall 
be compelled to flow onward, and not be lost over the 
edge ; this can still be kept so informal that the round 
rim is not defined. The same kind of channel will 
connect all the tubs. It will be quite enough in a 
small space if there are five of the tubs for true 
aquatics. My choice for these would be the little 
white-flowered NymphcEa pygmcsa, and the pretty pale 
yellow seedling from it called Helvola, raised by M. 
Marliac ; then one tub each for Pondeteria, Aponogeton, 
and Butomus. Other tubs could be sunk for the marsh 
plants, but if the service barrelful of water could by 
some clever way of diversion be given alternately to 
the tubs themselves and to the ground around them, 
this ground being sunk just below the path level would 
keep fairly moist. It would, however, be a more 
effective place for marsh plants if the whole excavated 
space had on the sides and bottom a coat of rough 
cement concrete followed by a finer coat trowelled on 
or " rendered " as a bricklayer would say. 

The insides of the paraffin barrels will be made all 
the more durable if they are burnt out before using. 



TUBS IN WATER-GARDENS 131 

This is done by lighting a wisp of straw placed in each. 
The wood is saturated with mineral oil which soon 
catches fire. The whole inside is allowed to blaze for 
three or four minutes, till it has a completely car- 
bonised coating, which forms the best preservative 
from decay. The fire is put out by turning the tubs 
upside down. 

Any of the marsh plants already mentioned will do 
in the moist area, but in addition other small plants 
may be named. The yellow Mountain Saxifrage 
(S. aizoides)^ the Alpine Campanula barbata, the North 
American Rhexia virginica, and the pretty native Bog 
Asphodel ; and on the shady side EpigcBa repens. 

The following groups will also come well : the deli- 
cate Fern, Nephrodium Thelipteris, with Nierembergia 
rivularis and the Water Forget-me-not ; Galax apkylla, 
Shortia galacifolia^ and Cornus canadensis ; the double 
Cuckoo-flower and the neat Cardamine trifoliata ; the 
lovely little Houstonia^ with the dainty creeping foliage 
of Sibthorpia ; the brilliant blue Gentiana bavarica by 
itself ; the violet-like Butterwort also alone ; Prinmla 
rosea and P. involucrata Monroi and the fairy-like 
P. farinosa ; then severally, the American Helojiias, 
Gentiana Pneumonanthe, and in the more backward 
places where rather larger plants will have space, 
Cypripediuni spectabile, Gentiana asclepiadea, and, if in 
shade, the handsome American Fern, Onoclea sensibilis. 
Any bare spaces, when the little garden is first planted, 
can be filled with Mossy Saxifrages, and the wettest 
places with Sphagnum moss, whose presence is a com- 
fort to many of the plants of the peat bog. 



132 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

Where tubs of aquatic plants are not sunk in the 
ground their form seems to suggest some rather 
symmetrical arrangement, but in this case their dis- 
position would entirely depend on what local circum- 
stances would offer or demand. 

The little bog -garden will probably belong to 
persons of small or moderate means, to whom it is 
an object to avoid costly labour. Many an owner 
of such a little place has pronounced mechanical 
tastes and will do all but the heaviest earth-work 
himself. He will set the stones and make the 
cemented channels, and knock up a rather close- 
paled treUis to hide the supply barrel, or even cover 
it with an outer skin of rough rock-walling that would 
make a good show on the bog-garden side. It would 
be as well not to build the barrel right in, but only to 
make a veiling wall showing to the bog-garden, so 
that the barrel could be changed if necessary. The 
piece of rock-wall would be buttressed back on each 
side of the barrel and a little rough arch made in 
front for hand access to the tap. Then somewhere 
there might be a small dipping tank ; such as the 
one whose corner shows in the illustration. This is an 
actual tank in just such a garden as has been described. 
It is filled by rain water that runs down a path beyond 
the mound which rises at its back, and a ten-foot 
length of iron pipe brings it through. It was an easy 
job to make a foot or two of stone and cement 
channel with a small catchpit to stop the sand at the 
upper end of the pipe. The dark hole under the 




00 

a. 

Oh 




O 

o 

p ^ 






TUBS IN WATER-GARDENS 133 

Harts-tongue shows where the hidden pipe delivers 
the water into the tank. 

Then in such places it is pleasant to make rough 
seats of wood or stone. The wooden seat in the 
picture looks very rugged, but is better to sit on than 
it appears to be, and after all the purpose of a seat 
in such a place is only as an occasional perch. Still, 
if it is the right height, and the back has the right 
slope, and the rail across comes at the proper place — 
in this case it was too high when the photograph was 
done and was lowered four inches — a fair amount of 
comfort may be secured. The Ivy took very kindly 
to this rough seat, wreathing the stumps, and, later, 
the supports of the back rail. Another seat was built 
of stone in an adjoining bit of garden, with a low 
back against a bank. On the top of the bank tufts of 
Thyme were planted that came bushing out and over 
the edge of the stone, and made a living cushion 
that was not only pleasantly restful but delightfully 
fragrant. 

Plants for Bog-Garden 

In Tubs 

Nymphcea pygmaa. Nymphcea Helvola. 

Pondeteria cordata. Aponogeton distachyon. 

Butomus palustris. 

In Bog or Damp Ground 

(Saxifraga aizoides. ( Nierembergia rivularis. 

Rhexia virginica. s Myosotis palustris. 

Narthecium ossifragunt. \ Nephrodium Thelipteris. 



134 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



Gentiana bavarica. 
Primula rosea. 
P. Monroi. 
P. farinosa. 
Helonias bullata. 
Galax aphylla. 
Shortia galacifolia. 
Cornus canadensis. 
Epigcea repens. 



Cardamine pratensis fl. pi. 
C. trifoliata. 
Arenaria balearica. 
Pingidcula grandiflora. 
Gentiana asclepiadea. 
Onoclea sensibilis. 
Gentia?ta Pneumonanthe. 
Cypripedium spectabile. 



The names in brackets are those of plants that group well 
together or near each other. 



CHAPTER XVII 

TANKS IN GARDEN DESIGN 

The recent remarkable development of the Water-Lily 
as a garden flower has already had a marked effect on 
garden design, in that an important modern pleasure 
ground is scarcely complete without its Lily tank. 
The Water-Lily's simple form both of flower and 
foliage seems to adapt it specially for being grown 
in basins in the ornamental garden. The illustration 
shows a good example of such a Lily pool. The 
broad flat kerb of wrought stone is in harmony both 
with the level hnes of the water and the flat expanse 
of grass. Such an edging is far better than the lumpy 
raised erections of poor design that so often disfigure 
our garden pools. Raised parapets are only good 
when they are very well designed, as in an illustration 
at the beginning of the next chapter. 

The proper relation of the water-level to the edge 
of the tank is a matter that is often overlooked. It 
should not be far from the level of the lower inside 
hne of the kerb. Nothing, except an empty tank 
or fountain basin, has a much more unsatisfactory 
appearance than a deep tank with only a little water 
in the bottom. They are often built quite needlessly 



136 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

deep. It is most important in the garden landscape 
that the tanks or basins should always have the water 
at the proper level. In the case of a service tank that 
is a necessary reservoir, or one whose use is to dip 
from, it is another matter, but if a basin of water 
forms a definite part of a garden scheme the line of 
the water at the right height is as important as any 
other line in the design. 

The second example illustrated shows a larger tank, 
also of good design and enriched with angle piers 
supporting stone vases. Here the border is a little 
raised, with a boldly curved section as befits its larger 
area, but is not raised enough to impede the view of 
the water or to cut it off from the beholder's enjoy- 
ment. 

Many people will no doubt put forward an ob- 
jection to the unprotected edge on account of danger 
to children. But even a flat-edged tank need not 
and should not be dangerous. In the first place there 
is no need for any tank to be more than two feet 
deep, while its under-water margin need not be 
more than one foot deep. It is much better that 
this should be in two distinct steps, the outer and 
shallower part being two or three or more feet wide 
according to the size of the pool. This would also 
help to keep the water-plants in their place, as in a 
dressed tank it looks better that whatever is grown 
in it should be kept well away from the edge, and be 
surrounded by a distinct margin of water. 

Nothing is better suited to this kind of tank than 
Water-Lilies, described at length in another chapter. 




POOL IN A GARDEN COURT. 



mv,/if}}9;^j^^rr%'r)myrM^'f'f^.>}^^w^^^ 



>* 



%. 



'--^j^r 






^^ 




DIAGRAM SHOWING ALTERATION FOR A POOL WITH 
DANGEROUS EDGE. 



TANKS IN GARDEN DESIGN 137 

and Arums {Calla yEthiopica) ; and in tanks of smaller 
size Aponogeton and Pondeteria, It is quite likely that 
Nelumbium might be grown as a tank plant in the 
milder parts of England, but it would not be suitable 
for dressed ground, as the water would have to be 
run off in winter and the roots covered with a thick 
layer of leaves or other material for protection from 
frost. 

In another chapter a Lily tank is described in a 
court of beautiful architecture ; but a much more 
homely enclosure, with plain walls of brick or stone, 
a large tank and a framing of handsome flower 
borders, is a delightful thing in the garden. Such a 
pleasant place is shown in the illustration. 

Here it must be allowed that the unprotected edge 
gives some impression of danger, but this is still 
more apparent when a tank is set low in a garden 
and has a steep turf slope next to it. In this case 
not only is the mind perturbed but a golden oppor- 
tunity is wasted. For, by cutting away the slope 
and a little more, as shown by the dotted line in the 
upper figure of the diagram, and making a pathway 
just above the water-level, paved with stone or brick, 
and putting in a dry wall and two sets of steps for 
easy access, a little wall-garden may be had on the 
land side, and on the water side a choice place for 
moisture-loving plants such as Mimulus and Caltha, 
Water Forget-me-not, and those Ferns that delight 
in a place where their roots can suck their fill of 
water. 

This part of the garden design alone, of tanks in 



138 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

enclosed spaces, is worthy of much further develop- 
ment. It would combine equally well with upright 
mortared walls of brick or stone, or with gently 
sloping dry walls. How easily such a wall and water 
garden could be made just below a pond-head, with 
a fall of water dashing into a little rocky basin, then 
passing under a bridge of one flat stone into a long- 
shaped pool, with its narrow water-walk below and 
its wider wall -walk on the higher level. What a 
paradise for Ferns and Wall Pennywort and Mossy 
Saxifrages would be the cool and rather damp rock- 
walling under the head, this being on the western 
or southern side, and what a pretty and interesting 
place altogether ! 

Throughout the history of the world, as it is written 
in the gardens that remain to us of old times, and 
from these, through all chronicled ages down to 
our own days, some kind of walled space of garden 
ground, cooled and enlivened with running and falling 
water, has always been made for human enjoyment 
and repose. It may be said to have been, especially 
in warmer climates than our own, one of the neces- 
sities of refined civilisation. The old gardens of 
Spain, in the ancient Moorish palaces of Granada 
and Seville, are as complete to-day with their many 
fountain jets and channels of running water as when 
they were first built ; and though, as we see them 
now, the original design of the planting, except per- 
haps in the lines of giant Cypresses, is no doubt lost, 
yet they still illustrate in their several ways that 



TANKS IN GARDEN DESIGN 139 

simple human need for the solace of a quiet garden, 
plentifully watered and well furnished with beautiful 
flowers and foliage and noble tree-form, as shown 
in the garden courts in the hearts of these fortress- 
palaces of many centuries ago. 

How beautiful some of these walled and fountained 
courts are, not only in Spain, but in many a southern 
and Oriental land, and all the more beautiful when 
they are simply planted with just the few things that 
seem to have been there from all time. Perhaps a 
Pomegranate with its scarlet bloom and ruddy sun- 
browned fruit, and a large-flowered Jasmine ; a 
Lemon-tree, yielding shade and perfume ; and, shoot- 
ing up straight and tall, the pink willow-like wands 
of the rose-bloomed Oleander ; while giving grateful 
shade within, though growing in some outer garden 
space, there is a group of Date Palm or a giant Ilex, 
a Sweet Bay or a Terebinth. 

Tanks of water combined with beds of flowers and 
cool greenery formed an essential part of the Roman 
and Grseco-Roman houses of old, as we know and can 
see to this day in the well-preserved remains of the 
houses of Pompeii, where the pillared peristylium 
enclosed a garden with fountains and tanks. The 
annexed illustration of a Pompeian house shows 
the peristylium some fifteen paces forward, the 
shallow tank in the foreground being the impluvium 
in the central space of the atrium or main hall of 
the building. Above the impluvium an open space 
in the roof admitted the rain water. 

The best of the basins with high parapets may be 



I40 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

seen in some of the old Italian gardens. Sometimes 
a fountain basin will rise out of the path or pavement 
with a dwarf wall of stone or marble some two feet 
high, panelled and enriched, and surmounted by a cop- 
ing so nearly flat that it forms a convenient seat, while 
the water within rises nearly to the cornice moulding. 
In the case of very large basins they are often and 
beautifully surrounded by an open balustrade, good 
to lean upon, while the water remains at or a little 
below the ground level. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

A LILY TANK IN A FORMAL GARDEN 

Whenever I have seen the large formal gardens 
attached to important houses of the Palladian type 
that are so numerous throughout England, I have 
always been struck by their almost invariable lack 
of interest and want of any real beauty or power of 
giving happiness. For at the risk of becoming 
wearisome by a frequent reiteration of my creed 
in gardening, I venture to repeat that I hold the 
firm belief that the purpose of a garden is to give 
happiness and repose of mind, firstly and above all 
other considerations, and to give it through the 
representation of the best kind of pictorial beauty 
of flower and foliage that can be combined or in- 
vented. And I think few people will deny that this 
kind of happiness is much more often enjoyed in 
the contemplation of the homely border of hardy 
flowers than in many of these great gardens, where 
the flowers lose their attractive identity and with it 
their hold of the human heart, and have to take a 
lower rank as mere masses of colour filling so many 
square yards of space. Gardens of this kind are 
only redeemed when some master-mind, accepting 
the conditions of the place as they are, decides on 



142 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

treating it in some bold way, either in one grand 
scheme of colour-harmony, or as an exposition of 
this principle combined with the display of magni- 
ficent foliage-masses, or by some other such means 
as may raise it above the usual dull dead-level. 

And, seeing how many gardens there still are of 
this type, I scarcely wonder that our great champion 
of hardy flowers should put himself into an attitude 
of general condemnation of the system, though I 
always regret that this should include denunciation 
of all architectural accessories. For if one has seen 
some of the old gardens of the Italian Renaissance, 
and the colossal remains of their forerunners of still 
greater antiquity, one can hardly fail to be impressed 
with the unbounded possibilities that they suggest 
to a mind that is equally in sympathy with beautiful 
plant-life and with the noble and poetical dignity 
of the most refined architecture — possibilities that 
are disregarded in many of these large gardens, with 
their often steep or mean flights of steps, often badly- 
designed balustrades, and weary acreages of gravelled 
paths. 

I always suppose that these great wide dull 
gardens, sprawling over much too large a space, 
are merely an outgrowth of plan-drawing. The 
designer sitting over his sheet of paper has it within 
such easy view on the small scale, and though he 
lays out the ground in correct proportion with the 
block-plan of the house, and is therefore right on 
paper, yet no human eye can ever see it from that 
point of view ; and as for its use in promoting any 



A LILY TANK 143 

kind of happiness, it can only be classed among 
others of those comfortless considerations that per- 
plex and worry the mind with the feeling that they 
are too much, and yet not enough. 

For the formal garden of the best type I can picture 
to myself endless possibilities both of beauty and 
delight — for though my own limited means have in a 
way obliged me to practise only the free and less 
costly ways of gardening, such as give the greatest 
happiness for the least expenditure, and are therefore 
the wisest ways for most people to walk in — yet I 
also have much pleasure in formal gardens of the 
best kinds. But it must be nothing less than the very 
best, and it is necessarily extremely costly, because it 
must entail much building beautifully designed and 
wrought. It must also have an unbounded supply of 
water, for so only could one work out all the best 
possibilities of such a garden. 

There seems to me to be a whole mine of wealth 
waiting to be worked for the benefit of such gardens, 
for, as far as I am aware, what might now be done has 
never been even attempted with any degree of care- 
ful or serious study. When one thinks of the very 
few plants known for garden use to the ancients, and 
to those who built and planted the noble gardens of 
the Italian Renaissance, and when one compares this 
limited number with the vast range of beautiful shrubs 
and plants we now have to choose from, one cannot 
help seeing how much wider is the scope for keen 
and critical discrimination. And though some of the 
plants most anciently in cultivation, such as the Rose, 



144 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

Violet, Iris, Poppy, Jasmine, and Vine, are still among 
the best, yet we are no longer tied to those and a few 
others only. The great quantity we have now to 
choose from is in itself a danger, for in the best and 
most refined kinds of formal gardening one is more 
than ever bound to the practice of the most severe 
restraint in the choice of kinds, and to accept nothing 
that does not in its own place and way satisfy the 
critical soul with the serene contentment of an abso- 
lute conviction. 

I therefore propose to give one example of a por- 
tion of a formal garden such as I hold to be one of 
the most pleasant and desirable kind, and such as will 
present somewhat of the aspect, and fill the mind with 
somewhat of the sentiment, of those good old gardens 
of Italy. And though the initial expense will be 
heavy — for in work of this kind the artist's design 
must be carried out to the smallest detail, without 
skimping or screwing, or those frequent and disas- 
trous necessities of lopping or compromise that so 
often mar good work — yet the whole would be so 
solid and permanent that the cost of its after-main- 
tenance would be small out of all proportion with 
that of the usual large gardens. These always seem 
as if purposely designed to bind upon the shoulders 
of their owners the ever-living burden of the most 
costly and wasteful kind of effort in the trim keeping 
of turf and Box edging and gravelled walks, with the 
accompanying and unavoidable vexatious noises of 
rumbling roar of mowing machine, clicking of shears, 
and clanking grind of iron roller. In the chief por- 



A LILY TANK 145 

tions or courts of my formal garden all this fidgetty 
labour and worry of ugly noise would be unknown, 
and the only sounds of its own need or making would 
be the soothing and ever-delightful music of falling 
and running water. 

Thoughts of this kind have come to me all the more 
vividly within the last year or two when I have seen 
in the gardens of friends the beautifully - coloured 
forms of the newer Water-Lilies. Lovely as these 
are in artificial pools or in natural ponds and quiet 
back-waters, they would probably be still more beauti- 
ful, or rather their beauty could be made still more 
enjoyable, by their use in a four-square tank in the 
Water-Lily court of a formal garden, one's mind all 
the more readily inviting the connection because of 
the recollection of the NymphcBum of the ancient 
Roman gardens, of tank or canal form, with stone- 
paved walks shaded by a pillared portico, and of 
Nyinph(Ba, the botanical name of the Water-Lily. 
There is a perfectly well-dressed look about those 
Lilies, with their large leaves of simplest design, that 
would exactly accord with masonry of the highest 
refinement, and with the feeling of repose that is 
suggested by a surface of still water. 

All gardening in which water plays an important 

part implies a change of level in the ground to be 

dealt with. I am taking as an example a place where 

ground slopes away from the house, so that it demands 

some kind of terraced treatment. First, there would 

be the space next to the house ; its breadth having 

due relation to the height of the building. From this 

K 



146 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

space a flight of easy steps (the first thing shown at 
the top of the plan) would descend to the Water-Lily 
court, landing on a wide flagged path that passes all 
round the tank. On all four sides there are also steps 
leading down from the path into the water. I cannot 
say why it is, but have always observed that a beauti- 
ful effect is gained by steps leading actually into 
water. In this case I would have the two lowest steps 
actually below the water-line. Although steps are 
in the first instance intended for the human foot, yet 
we have become so well accustomed to the idea of 
them as easy means of access from one level to 
another that in many cases they are also desirable as 
an aid to the eye, and in such a place as I think of, 
the easy lines of shallow steps from the level of the 
path to that of the water-surface and below it, would, 
I consider, be preferable to any raised edging such 
as is more usually seen round built tanks. It would 
give the eye the pleasant feeling of being invited to 
contemplate the Lilies at its utmost ease, instead of 
being cut off from them by a raised barrier. On the 
sides of the path away from the tank is a flower 
border, backed by the wall that bounds the whole 
area of the court. On the three sides, to the right 
and left and across the tank as you stand on the main 
flight of steps, the wall, midway in each space, falls 
back into a half-round niche. The niche across the 
tank is filled with Cannas, the taller kinds at the back 
for stately stature and nobility of large leafage ; the 
smaller ones, of lower habit and larger bloom, being 
planted towards the front. Coming down the steps 



A LILY TANK 147 

you see the level lines of water-surface jewelled with 
the lovely floating bloom of white and pink and 
tender rose colour, the steps into the tank on the 
near and far sides still further insisting on the re- 
pose of the level line. The eye and mind are thus in 
the best state of preparation for enjoying the bold 
uprightness of growth of the Cannas. In the flower 
borders next the wall I would have Lilies, and plants 
mostly of Lily-like character, Crinums and Funkias, 
and of the true Lilies a limited number of kinds — the 
noble White Lily, L. Harrisiy L. longiflorum^ L. Browni, 
and white and rosy forms of L. speciosum. These 
would grow out of the groups of the beautiful pale- 
foliaged Funkia grandiflora and of the tender green 
of the Lady Fern and of Harts-tongue. I would not 
let the walls be too much covered with creepers, for 
I hold that wherever delicate architecture marries 
with gardening, the growing things should never over- 
run or smother the masonry ; but in the Lily court I 
would have some such light-running creeping things 
as can be easily led and trained within bounds, such 
as Clematis Flammula, blue Passion Flower, and, if 
climate allows, Rhodochiton volubile, Cobcea scandens, 
and Solanum jasminoides. These would be quite 
enough, and even perhaps too many. 

The half-round niches to right and left are partly 
occupied by small basins, into which water falls, 
through a sculptured inlet, from a height of some 
feet. From these it runs under the flagged pathway 
into the tank. Two overflows pass underground from 
this to right and left of the Canna niche, from which 



148 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

the water is led out again into the small tanks at the 
angles of the paved space below the semi-circular 
stairway. From these it is again led away into a 
series of little channels and falls and then makes two 
rippling rills by the [side of the next flights of steps 
and lengths of pavement. To return to the Water- 
Lily tank, its border spaces at the angles of the basin 
would have raised edges, and would be planted with 
dwarf flowering Cannas, mostly of one kind and 
colour. The enclosing walls would be about eight 
feet high, and as groves of beautiful trees would be 
in their near neighbourhood, I should wish that any 
foliage that could be seen from within the court 
should be that of Ilex. 

In describing and figuring such a small piece of 
formal garden, I am endeavouring to show how a 
good use can be made, in what might be one detail 
of a large scheme, of beautiful plants whose use was 
unknown to the old garden builders, for, with the 
exception of the White Lily, hardly any of the plants 
just named could have been had. 

Had I ever had occasion to design a garden in what 
I should consider the most reasonable interpretation 
of the good Italian style, I should have been sparing 
in the use of such walled courts, keeping them and 
the main stairways for the important and mid-most 
part of the design, as shown in the plan, whether the 
formal design was placed on the next level below the 
house, or, as in the case I am contemplating, at a 
right angle to it, and coming straight down the face 
of the hill. In this case, wherever flights of steps 



"*>•:''• /'^•iv,>>, 




^-■ 



-.--V 



;i 




A LILY TANK 149 

occurred, there would be walls well planted above and 
below, stretching away to right and left, and below 
them long level spaces of grass. One of these long 
grassy spaces might well be made into a perfect 
picture gallery of the lovely modern developments 
of Water-Lily, in connection with a Water-Lily court. 
Straight down the middle of the turfed space might 
be a narrow rill of water fifteen inches wide, easy to 
step over, bounded by a flat kerb a foot to eighteen 
inches wide and level with the grass. At intervals 
in its length it would lead into separate small square- 
sided tanks only a few feet wide, but large enough 
to show the complete beauty of some one kind of 
Water-Lily at a time, so that the lovely flowers and 
leaves and surface of still water would be as it were 
enclosed in a definite frame of stone or marble. 

Where at the lower or valley edge of these long 
grassy spaces a descent occurred to the next lower 
level there would be a dry wall planted with Cistus 
and free-growing Roses — never, neveVy sharp sloping 
banks of turf. I always try to avoid the spirit of 
intolerance in anything, but for these turf banks, so 
frequent in gardens, I can only feel a distinct aver- 
sion. Did such a turf bank ever give any one the 
slightest happiness ? Did any one ever think it 
beautiful ? The upper terrace wall above the level 
of the Lily court would no doubt be surmounted by 
a wrought-stone balustrade, but as the scheme de- 
scended towards the lowest level the architectural 
features would diminish, so that they would end in 
a flagged walk only, with steps where needful. But 



I50 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

the treatment of this would depend on what was 
below. If it was all pleasure ground, or if there 
was a river or lake, the architectural refinements 
would be continued, though not obtruded ; if it was 
a kitchen garden it would be approached by perhaps 
a simpler walled enclosure for Vines and Figs, the 
paved walk passing between two green spaces, in 
the centre of each of which would stand a Mulberry 
tree. On the upper levelled spaces right and left the 
formal feeling would merge into the free, for there 
is no reason why the two should not be combined, 
and on one level at least the green expanse should 
be seen from end to end, the flagged path only 
passing across it. And all the way down there would 
be the living water, rippling, rushing, and falling. 
Open channels in which it flowed with any con- 
siderable fall would be built in little steps with falls 
to oblige the water to make its rippling music, and 
in the same way throughout the whole garden every 
point would be studied, so as to lose sight of no 
means, however trifling, of catching and guiding any 
local matter or attribute, quality, or circumstance that 
could possibly be turned to account for the increase 
of the beauty and interest and delightfulness of the 
garden. One small section I have ventured to de- 
scribe and figure in detail, but only as a suggestion 
of how much may be done with a limited number of 
plants only. One wants to see one beautiful picture 
at a time, not a muddle of means and material that 
properly sorted and disposed might compose a dozen. 
I do not say that it is easy ; on the contrary, it wants 




^ -s. 



§1 






o 



A LILY TANK 151 

a good deal of the knowledge that only comes of 
many forms of study and labour and effort. But 
the grand plants are now so numerous and so easily 
accessible that one should consider all ways of using 
them worthily. 

As far as I understand the needs of such a garden 
as I have sketched, with a nucleus or backbone 
of pure formality, how grandly one could use all 
the best plants. How, descending the slope, at 
every fresh landing some new form of plant beauty 
would be displayed ; how, coming up from below, the 
ascent of, say, a hundred feet, instead of being a toil, 
would be a progress of pleasure by the help of the 
smooth flagged path and the wide flights of easy 
steps. Every step in the garden would be nearly two 
feet broad and never more than five inches high, no 
matter how steep the incline. If ground falls so 
rapidly that steps of such a gradient cannot be 
carried straight up and down, we build out a bold 
landing and carry the steps in a double flight right 
and left, and then land again, and come down to 
the next level with another flight. Then we find 
what a good wide space is left below for a basin 
and a splash of water or some handsome group of 
plants, or both, and that the whole scheme has gained 
by the alteration in treatment that the form of the 
ground made expedient. Then there are frequent 
seats, so placed as best to give rest to the pilgrim 
and to display the garden-picture. 

Where the lower flights of steps occur we are 
passing through woodland, with a not very wide 



152 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

space between the edge of the wood and the wide 
paved way, here unbounded by any edging. Here 
we have, in widespread groups, plants of rather large 
stature — Bamboos, and the great Knotweeds of Japan, 
the large Tritomas and the Giant Reeds and grasses, 
Arundo, Gynerium and Eulalia, and between them 
the running water, now no longer confined in built 
channels, but running free in shallow pebbly rills. 
Here we have also other large-leaved plants — the 
immense Gunneras and the native Butter-bur, the 
North American Rodgersia, and the peltate Saxifrage, 
all happy on the lower cooler levels and gentle 
slopes; watered by the rill, and half shaded by the 
nearer trees. As the path rises it comes clear of the 
wood, and the garden spreads out right and left in 
the lower levels of its terraced spaces. One of these, 
perhaps the lowest, I should be disposed to plant 
with Bamboos on both sides of a broad green path. 
As the paved path mounts, the architectural features 
become more pronounced ; the steps that were quite 
plain below have a slight undercutting of the lower 
part of the front. A little higher, and this becomes 
a fully moulded feature, with a distinct shadow ac- 
centuating the overhanging front edge of the step, 
and so by an insensible gradation we arrive at the 
full dress of the Lily court and terrace above. 

In so slight a sketch as this one cannot attempt to 
describe in detail all the beautiful ways of using such 
good things as Roses and Clematis (among hosts of 
others) that such a garden suggests. But it is perhaps 
in gardens of formal structure that some of their 



A LILY TANK 153 

many uses may best be seen ; for the long straight 
line of the coping of a parapet may be redeemed 
from monotony by a leaping wave-mass of a free- 
growing Rose, with its spray-showers of clustered 
bloom, and the tender grace of the best of the small 
white-bloomed Clematises of spring and autumn is 
never seen to better advantage than when wreathing 
and decorating, but not hiding or overwhelming, the 
well-wrought stonework that bounds the terrace and 
crowns its wall. 



CHAPTER XIX 

WATER MARGINS 

Happy are those who desire to do some good water- 
gardening and who have natural river and stream 
and pond, as yet untouched by the injudicious im- 
prover. For a beautiful old bank or water edge is a 
precious thing and difficult to imitate. If it is lost 
it is many years before its special features can be 
regained. But if the pond still possesses its own 
precious edge, and has its upper end half silted with 
alluvial mud, its great tussocks of coarse Sedges, its 
groups of Alders and luscious tufts of Marsh Mari- 
golds, it is as a canvas primed and ready for the 
artist's brush. 

In such a case what will have first to be thought of 
will be some means of comfortable access. For if a 
quiet bay in pond or river has near the bank a bed of 
Water Crowfoot or the rarer Villarsia, we want to get 
close to it on firm ground without fear of slipping 
into the water or getting bogged among the rushes on 
the bank. So we make a path by putting down some 
rough ballast and ramming it partly into the moist 
ground, and lay flat stepping stones upon it, and level 
up to them. In the very wettest places, or if the path 
has to be taken actually into the water, some small 




ROCK AND STREAM GARDEN IN DEVONSHIRE. 



WATER MARGINS 155 

Alder trunks, cut up two feet long and driven into the 
wet ground, will make a durable and effectual sub- 
structure. 

It is a matter of simple comfort to provide these 
easy ways ; but it is equally important that such paths 
should be so done that they have no appearance of 
garden paths. It is not an easy matter to get a 
labourer to understand that a path in woodland or on 
water margin or other wild place must not have hard 
edges, but that, once the needful width is cleared or 
dug out or levelled, that the edge should die away 
imperceptibly into the true character of what is next 
to it on either side, just as it does in a forest track that 
has been used for ages, but has never been made or 
mended. 

Any hard edge of walling, cement, or wooden 
campshotting is fatal to beauty of wild water margin, 
and makes free planting almost impossible. Such 
edges may be needed in more formally designed 
garden ground, but they are not only needless, but 
actually destructive of beauty in a pond or pool of 
informal shape. A pond-head sometimes must be 
rather straight and in some cases may have to be 
walled, but when the wall is not needful and the 
pond edge is to be planted for beauty, its natural 
shore should be treasured and retained, no matter 
how boggy or unsound it may be in places. It is 
all the prettier if the path does not exactly follow 
its edge, but only occasionally reaches it ; and it 
can be made quite dry and sound by some such 
method as that above described at a far less cost than 



156 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

would have to be undertaken for an edge-destroying 
walling. 

It was a good day for our water margins when the 
Giant Gunneras were introduced, for the immense 
size and noble form of their foliage enables us to 
make water-pictures on a scale that before was im- 
possible. They are well seen across some little 
breadth of water like the narrow pool at that wonder- 
ful half-wild garden at Wisley ; but one would like to 
grow them in several other ways, one of them being 
on the banks of some stream that passes down a 
narrow valley with a wide and shallow stream-way 
strewn with great grey boulders. 

The Gunneras are so overpoweringly large that 
they dwarf everything near them ; their size seems to 
demand some association with primeval rock-forms 
and evidences of primeval forces. Alone among such 
rocks, and in a valley or mountain hollow whose 
sides are clothed with dense darkness of Firs, one can 
imagine these great plants looking their noblest. 

In that same good garden at Wisley the beautiful 
Japanese Iris Icevigata or /. Kcenipferi grows by the 
thousand — in the flowering grassy banks by the 
narrow water opposite the Gunneras, by the edges of 
other ponds, and in a meadow-like space of several 
acres. In all these and other such places this good 
plant is doing well. It is certainly the Water Iris 
above all others. 

I have often found that among lovers of flowers of 
the less careful order there is a general idea that all 




IRIS LMVIGATA OR KAEMPFERI IN MR. WILSON'S GARDEN. 



WATER MARGINS 157 

Irises like water, and that Irises, with them, mean 
Flag-leaved Irises. These are for the most part moun- 
tain plants, while Iris florentina grows on wall-tops ; 
and though they may do fairly well on a well-drained 
river bank, they are not the true Irises for water edges. 

Among those most commonly in cultivation, the 
ones for the water-sides are the native yellow-flowered 
Sword-flag {Iris Pseud-acorus), I. ockroleuca, grand in 
cool, most loam ; the varieties of /. sibirica, and the 
noble Japan flower so grandly grown at Wisley. 

Plants that are distinct of habit and large of leaf 
always look well near water ; this has been felt in the 
Devonshire garden, where a tuft of Veratrum album is 
seen seated on a rock overhanging the rushing stream, 
though it is not a true water-plant. 

The great Cow-Parsnep {Heraclemri) is one of the 
best of water-side ornaments. The kind we have 
known and used so long seems likely to be superseded 
by the new and still handsomer H. inantegazzianum. 
The plants of Cow-Parsnep in the picture are rather 
too much smothered among other growths, which 
hide the handsome radical leaves. It is seen at its 
best in grassy water edge or other cool damp place 
where it is backed by dark foliage. It would be 
excellent about old water-mill buildings. 

Thalictrum flavum is a first-rate water-side plant. 
Originally a native and not unfrequently to be found 
on river banks, it has been improved and much in- 
creased in size by cultivation, and now throws up its 
grand heads of feathery yellow bloom to a height of 
seven feet or more. 



158 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

It is always well in planting pond edges to have a 
good quantity of the flag-like native growths — Bul- 
rushes and Sweet-sedge and the best of the other 
Sedges. Unless the pond is in immediate connection 
with garden ground, masses of handsome flowering 
plants look all the better when they are detached 
from one another, as they are usually seen in nature. 
It maintains the wild-garden character that is suitable 
in places that are rather distant from the garden. 
Equisetum is also one of the best of the water-side 
plants for this use ; best in boggy ground in shade. 
The larger of the plants described in the chapter on 
small ponds or pools will, of course, also do well by 
the larger water spaces. 

Where the pond adjoins the garden a more free 
use can be made of garden plants. The pond-edge 
in the picture has been boldly sown with Poppies 
and Foxgloves with capital effect. In such a place 
the perennial Oriental Poppy would also be excellent 
and the larger of the herbaceous Spiraeas, the large 
white-plumed kS". Aruncus, S. venusta, S. palmatUj and 
the double Meadow Sweet, 6". Uhnaria. 

Often one sees some piece of water that just misses 
being pictorial, and yet might easily be made so. 
Such a case is that of the sheet of water in the illus- 
tration. It is in the park ground of a fine place 
whose ancient gardens are full of beauty, and whose 
environment is of grandly wooded hill and dale. The 
abrupt line of this pond cutting straight across the 



WATER MARGINS 159 

foot of the rising ground on the right is somewhat 
harsh and unnatural. A great improvement could 
easily be effected by a moderate amount of navvy's 
work, if it were directed to running a sharp-pointed 
bay into the rising ground on the right, and tipping 
the earth taken out into the square corner on the near 
right hand ; saving the bed of rushy growth and 
planting it back on the new edge and into the bay. 
The exact position of the excavation would be chosen 
by following any indication towards a hollow form in 
the ground above, and by considering how its lines 
would harmonise with the lines already existing. 
The two sides of the bay would also be eased down 
after the manner of those hollow places one some- 
times sees by pond or lake in rising ground where 
cattle or wild creatures come down to drink. 

Plants for Water Margins. 

Caltha palustris. Iris Pseud-acorus. 

Gunner a manicata. I. sibirica. 

G. scabra. I. IcBvigata. 

Heradeum giganteum. I. ochroleuca. 

H. tnantegazzianum. Thalictrum flavum. 

Equisetum Telmateia. Bamboos, in variety. 

Polygonum Sieboldi. Polygonum sachalinense. 



CHAPTER XX 

WATER-LILIES 

It would be impossible to over-estimate the value of 
the cultivated Nymphaeas to our water-gardens. These 
grand plants enable us to compose a whole series of 
new pictures of plant beauty of the very highest order. 
Their now great variety of colouring, as well as their 
diversity of size, allow us to make a wide choice so as 
to suit all purposes ; the largest, hybrids of the great 
American species, for the larger ponds, those of 
medium size for pools and tanks, and the smallest 
for those of us who have to be content with a few 
tubs or small cemented basins. 

But certain plants, and especially those that, like the 
Water-Lilies, have a very clearly defined character, 
seem able to give us their highest beauty in just 
certain circumstances. We have to find out the right 
kind of environment. Beautiful they are and must be 
in all ways, but one of the things most needful in good 
gardening is to study the plants and provide them with 
the most suitable sites and surroundings. Thus, de- 
lightful as the Water-Lilies are in the margin of a 
wide lake, they are still better in a pond of moderate 
size, or even in one that has more the character of a 



WATER-LILIES i6i 

large pool. If this has a near surrounding of wooded 
rising ground, not of trees overhanging the water, 
but at such a distance as to shut in the scene and to 
promote stillness of the water surface, the pond will 
be a happy one for its Lilies. Such a scene as Mr. 
Robinson's Lily pond in North Sussex is an example 
that could scarcely be bettered. Here are some of 
the largest of the good hybrids, white, pale yellow, 
and pale rose, in liberal groups of one good kind at a 
time, showing the very best that they can do for us in 
our own natural waters. Such ponds occur by the 
thousand in English parks and pleasure grounds, and 
the lovely Lilies only need planting where they will 
be free of rank growths of undesirable water-weeds, 
and where they can grow and increase and reward us 
year after year with their abundant bloom of surpris- 
ing beauty. 

In this, as in nearly all other gardening, if the best 
pictures are wanted, the simplest ways must be em- 
ployed ; for if too many kinds are mixed up or even 
used too close together, the best effect of the picture 
is lost. Thus if more than one colour or kind is 
to be seen at a time, it is best to put together gentle 
harmonies, as of white and pale yellow, or white and 
pale rose. Pale and deep rose also, with blush-white, 
will make a pleasant colour harmony ; white and pale 
blue will be, we hope, a possible combination in the 
near future. 

A heavy debt of gratitude is owing to M. Latour 
Marliac of Temple-sur-Lot, France ; for to him is due 



i62 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

the credit of having perceived the adaptabihty of the 
various hardy species of Water-Lily for purposes of 
hybridisation, and for the yielding of a large variety of 
beautiful forms. It is to the labours of this gentle- 
man that we owe the greater number of the beautiful 
flowers that we can now have in our ponds and 
tanks. 

Other growers have followed M. Marliac's example, 
and now there are many who are working on the 
same lines ; so that, though we have already a large 
number of beautiful hybrid Water-Lilies, there is no 
doubt that we have by no means come to the end of 
their development, though it seems difficult to beHeve 
that anything handsomer than Nymphcsa marliacea 
albida and the beautiful pale yellow N. m. Chromatella 
can possibly be produced. Already in the Laydekeri 
group there are rose and red and purplish flowers ; 
also the fine reds developed by Mr. Froebel of Zurich, 
while M. Marliac promises some of blue colouring, 
probably the progeny of the blue N. stellata of Upper 
Egypt and the blue Water-Lily of Zanzibar. The 
difficulty of obtaining the blue colouring in the hardy 
plant is that these blues are natives of tropical regions, 
but there seems good reason to suppose that this will 
be got over, for there are also blue Nymphaeas from 
the Cape and from Australia which will no doubt also 
play their part in the production of new garden 
kinds. 

For planting Water-Lilies in ponds a depth of two 
or three feet is in many cases enough, though some 




WATER-LILIES 



WATER-LILIES 163 

are quite contented with eighteen inches. But if a 
vigorous kind is planted too shallow, as it insists on 
having stalks of normal length, both leaves and flowers 
become unduly spread. It will probably be found 
that growth in tanks will prove to be the more certain 
method of controlling the plants, for in some cases 
when the roots are in a restricted space and can be 
given a special soil of good loam the flowers are much 
more abundant. The rich natural mud of the ponds 
no doubt varies much in its nature, for whereas in one 
pond a Lily will flower abundantly, the same plant in 
another is found to run to a large mass of vigorous 
foliage, and to give very little bloom. This seems to 
point to the advantage of the tank. 

The roots are generally planted in ponds by sinking 
an old basket containing the root, planted in good 
strong loam, a soil that all Water-Lilies delight in. 
The larger Lilies, such as the Marliacea hybrids, which 
owe their origin to the strong-growing American kinds, 
will do in fairly deep water, such as a depth of four 
feet or even more ; while the smallest, N. pygvKza and 
its pretty yellow variety Helvola, of M. Mariiac's 
raising, will do in a few inches. This little gem, with 
its neat marbled leaves and abundance of bloom, is 
the best of Water-Lilies for a tub. 

The accompanying lists show which species and 
varieties, as at present known, are most suitable for 
the various uses : — 



i64 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

WATER-LILIES, SPECIES AND HYBRIDS 

Species and Sub-species 

Nymphcea alba. 

* ,, „ cattdidissima (the finest form, requires 

more room and a greater depth than the 

type, say five to six feet). 
alba plenissima. 
„ „ rosea, syn. A^. Caspary, also N. sphcsro- 

carpa rosea; pale rosy-pink, the earliest 

to flower, ceasing also early. 
,, Candida, the Bohemian Water-Lily, growth 

medium. 
,, flava, pale yellow, from Southern United 

States, only suited for warm water or 

the most sheltered of positions outside ; 

growth weedy. 
„ gladstoniana, a remarkably fine white, 

colour pure, petals broad, one of the 

very best. 
,, odorata, the American white Water-Lily, 

growth medium. 
,, odorata rubra, the Cape Cod variety of the 

preceding. 
„ pygmcza, the Asiatic white Water-Lily, not 

so profuse of flower as some. 
„ tuberosa, another American white Water- 

Lily, of strong but not robust growth. 
„ tuberosa maxima, a stronger growing form. 



WATER-LILIES 165 

Nymphcea tuberosa Richardsoni, reputedly the finest 
variety, with very double flowers. 
„ tuberosa rosea ; in the way of N. alba 

rosea. 

Hybrids 

Nymphcea Marliacea hybrids are probably derived from 
N. alba candidissima and A^. odorata rubra, 
or from a tender coloured species, or 
possibly N. alba rosea. Scarcely a trace 
of N. odorata is apparent in any of these 
hybrids, this latter having characteristics 
quite its own. These hybrids are : — 

* ,, Marliacea carnea, very pale tinge of pink at 

base of petals. 

* „ Marliacea Candida, a grand white, the largest 

of all, frequently measuring nine or ten 
inches in diameter. 

* „ Marliacea rosea, much better than carnea; 

the pink more decided and the flowers 
of finer form. 
„ Marliacea fiammea, a highly coloured and 

very fine hybrid. 

* „ Marliacea rubro-punctata, of the largest size, 

colour reddish carmine. 

* „ Marliacea Chromatella, the only yellow of 

this section, a continuous flowering 
variety. 

* „ Marliacea colossea, reputedly the giant of 

the race. 



i66 WALL AND WATER GARDEN 

The foregoing are all of vigorous and dense growth, 
being seen to the best advantage in deep water when 
well established, say from four to eight feet. 

The Laydekeri section of the Marliac Water-Lilies 
appears to have some affinity with N. odorata in the 
form of their flowers, but the root-stock is quite 
different ; possibly this resemblance was subdued in 
one of the parents. Of these hybrids N. Laydekeri 
rosea is extremely difficult to propagate ; it is not 
disposed to make offsets, hence it is only increased 
by seeding. These are well suited to shallow pools 
of water, and for fountains, tanks, or tubs. 

Nymphcea Laydekeri rosea, a pale rose colour, darken- 
ing each day with age ; three colours are 
frequently seen upon the same plant ; 
comes into flower quite early. 

„ Laydekeri lilacina, different, in that it propa- 

gates freely ; flowers tinged with pale 
lilac. 

„ Laydekeri purpurata, a darker form of the 

foregoing, otherwise similar. 

„ Laydekeri fulgens, the darkest of this section, 

and larger in size of flowers and in 
growth. 

„ Laydekeri rosea prolifera is reputed to be 

true to its name. 

The A^. odorata section of the Marliacean hybrids 
have a greater resemblance to their parent on this 



WATER-LILIES 167 

side. I am disposed to think these have been raised 
by crossing N. odorata with N. odorata rubra, because 
the first of these, viz., N. odorata rosacea and N. ex- 
quisita, appear to be true to this type. These Water- 
LiHes are better suited to shallow water, say from 
eighteen inches to two feet in depth. All are sweetly 
scented. These Nymphceas are all quite recognisable 
by their peculiar, hard, wiry-looking root-stock, which 
is long and slender ; the roots also are not so succulent 
as in the preceding. 

NymphcBa odorata exquisita is a charming form ; it is a 
lovely shade of rosy-pink extending to 
the extremities of the petals. 
„ odorata rosacea, much paler in colour than 

the preceding, and quite as beautiful in 
its tints ; a profuse flowering plant. 
„ odorata suavissima, another variety, the 

flowers of which are stated to be larger 
than the foregoing, but of the same tints, 
possibly darker on the whole. 
„ odorata Luciana, in the way of N. odorata 

exquisita, perhaps lighter in colour of 
the two. 
„ odorata sulphurea, a charming Lily, pale 

yellow in colour, flowers thrown well 
out of the water, foliage mottled. This 
and the following are in Water-Lilies 
what the Cactus Dahlia is in its family, 
having long, narrow, and tapering 
petals. 



i68 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

Nymphcea odorata sulphurea grandiflora, a finer form 
of the preceding, with more vigour. 

„ odorata caroliniana, a pale, clear, rosy pink. 

„ ,, „ nivea, a pure white 

variety, extremely beautiful. 

„ odorata caroliniana perfecta, a most delicate 

tint of pale pink, quite lovely. 

Other Marliacean hybrids are as follows. These 
have individual characteristics each of most variable 
description, whilst to fix their parentage is a difficult 
matter. 

^Nymphcea lucida, growth vigorous, flowers a soft rose- 
pink tinged with red, foliage very orna- 
mental and distinct ; a fine variety. 
,, ellisiana^ growth vigorous, flowers of the 

richest carmine with age, much paler 
when first expanded ; a choice and 
desirable Lily. 

* „ gloriosa, the finest of all the Marliacean 
hybrids ; beyond a doubt a grand variety 
and most distinct ; colour rich carmine- 
red ; every well - developed flower has 
five sepals ; this is not seen in any other, 
and is most noticeable. It causes the 
flowers to expand more widely. 
„ ignea^ exceedingly rich in colour, growth 

moderate. 

' This should properly come under the Laydekeri section, which in its 
buds it resembles, though in vigour it is a great advance. 



WATER-LILIES 169 

NymphcEa sanguinea, darker than the preceding and 
of smaller growth ; a Lily that will 
become more popular. 
„ Robinsoni, quite distinct, dark in colour 

with a slight tinge of yellow ; a good 
grower. 
„ Seignoureti has the yellow or orange more 

defined than in the preceding ; not free 
in flowering. 
„ andreana, a purplish red, with handsome 

foliage, 
,, Atirora ; in the way of N. Seignoureti, not 

so good on the whole. 
,, pulva ; in the way of N. Seignoureti, not so 

good on the whole. 

>> Pygmcea Helvola, the smallest of any of the 

many fine hybrids raised by M. Latour- 

Marliac. It is a perfect gem ; colour a 

pale yellow, flowers stellate in shape, 

foliage small and beautifully mottled 

with bronze-red ; it flowers freely. Well 

suited to shallow basins, or tubs, or 

aquaria ; six inches of water over the 

crowns being ample. 

N. Arc-en-ciel and N. atro-sanguinea are two of the 

more recent of M. Latour-Marliac's developments. 

So also is N. colossea, already enumerated. In England 

these have not yet been fairly tested. iV. James Gurney, 

N. William Doogue, and TV". William Falconer ; these 

American varieties or hybrids appear to have a close 



lyo WALL AND WATER GARDENS 

affinity to those raised by M. Latour-Marliac. The 
two first-named are after the N. Marliacea group, and 
the latter after i\^. odorata ; this is the darkest I have 
yet flowered of any of the hybrids. The parentage of 
these three Lilies I do not recollect to have seen given 
or even suggested. Another American variety, James 
Brydon, I have not yet seen. 

N. FrcebelividiS described by J. F. H. in The Garden 
recently, and a coloured plate was given. This also 
is not yet well enough known to speak of its merits. 
It has a good reputation on the Continent. 

As a rule the depth of water required for any variety 
may be gauged by the length of the petiole or leaf- 
stalk. Those with long petioles will be well adapted 
for deep water, such, for instance, as the varieties 
marked *. 



INDEX 



Acana species, 33 
Acantkolvnon, 24, 26 
Acanthus, 25, 27 
Achillea umbellaia, 7, 8, 22, 87, 

91 
Acorns Calamus, 112 
Adoxa, 41 
^thionema, 20, 26 
Alders, 70, no, 118, 154 
Alhambra, 26 

Alpine garden, 100 ; Alpine pas- 
tures, 103 
Alyssum, 9, 17, 26, 34, 61 
Amaryllis Belladonna, 25, 27 
Andromeda, 81, 83 
Androsace species, 32, 94 
Anemone fulgens, 27 ; A. apen- 

nina, 32, 35 
Anom.atheca, 25, 27 
Antennaria, 87, 92 
Aponogeton, 116, 130, 137 
Arabis, 17, 26, 35, 59, 61, 91 
Architect and gardener, 54 
Architecture not to be smoth- 
ered, 54 
Arenaria balearica, 8, 14, 92 
Arnebia echioides, 21 
Arrow-head, 113 
Artemisia nana, 7, 8, 22 ; A. 

sericea, 7 
Arundo, 80, 152 
Asarum, 86 



Asplenium species, 38 ; y^. Filix- 

fcsmina, 73 
Aubrietia, 2, 26, 35, 59, 92 
Auriculas, 32 
Ayrshire Roses, 6 
Azalea, 81 

Backhouse, Messrs., rock-gar- 
den, 96 

Balsam, 69 

Bamboo, 81, 152 

Bathing pool, 126 

Bay {Laurus nobilis), 46 

Bell-flower, Ivy-leaved, 75 

Berberis, 4, 5, 22, 27 

Bignonia radicans, 48, 53 

Birches, 67, 71, 109, 119 

Bloodroot, 123 

Bog Asphodel {Narthecium), 77, 
123 

Bog-garden, 121, 128 ; plants 
for, 133 

Boggy ground, 71, 121 

Bog Myrtle, 77 

Bog Pimpernel, 75 

Box, 48 

Brambles, 4, 48, 78 

Bridge with wild overgrowth, 

57 
Briers, 5 
Brooms, 83 
Buckbean, 1 14 



172 



INDEX 



Bulbous plants for rock-garden, 

98 
Bulrush, III 
Bur-reed, 69, 112 
Butomiis, 112, 130 
Butterbur, 71, 114, 152 
Butterwort, 75, 131 

Cabbage Rose, 46 

Calla palustris, 77, 137 

Caltha (Marsh Marigold), 137 

Campanula, 26, 34, 62 ; C. iso- 
phylla, 8, 9, 19 ; C garganica, 
8, 9, 1 8 ; C. fragilis, 8, 9 ; C. 
muralis, 8, 9, 19 ; C. Raineri, 
19; C.petrcea, 19 ; C. Elatine, 
19; C. elatinoides, 19; C ^;i'- 
«ja, 19; C macrorhiza, 19; C 
mirabilis, 19 ; C.pyra/nidalis, 
55 ; Campanulas, 56 ; C. pull a, 
93 ; C barbata, 131 

Candleberry Gale, 77 

Cannas, 147 

Caper, 23 

Capri, Island of, 19 

Cardamine, 35, 131 

Carpenteria, 53 

Cassinia, 22, 27 

Catmint, 22 

Cementing steps, 13 

Cerastium, 2, 7, 9, 17, 26, 59, 92 

Ceterach, 14 

Chair-Rush, 112 

Cheilanthes, 14 

Cheiranthus alpinus, 91 

Chitnonanthus, 48 

Choisya, 46, 53 

Oj/wj, 4, 8, 9, 22, 25, 27, 83, 85, 
149 

Cletnatis Vitalba, 43 ; C Flavi- 
mula, 46, 147 ; C montana, 
46 ; Clematis, 142 



CobcBa scandens, 147 
Columbine, 41 
Cotnptonia asplenifolia, 77 
Conifers by water, no 
Construction of dry walling, 1 1 

and onward ; of rock-garden, 

10 
Cornus, 131 
Correvon, Monsieur, of Geneva, 

100 
Corydalis, 2, 8, 34, 37, 93 
Cotoneastet\ 4, 86 
Cotton Grass, 77 
Cotyledon umbilicus, 37 
Cow-parsnep, 71, 157 
Crinttm, 25, 27, 147 
Criticism on a terraced garden, 

51 and onward 
Cyperus Sedge, 112 
Cypress, 44, 138 
Cypripedium spedabile, 74, 131 
Cystopteris, 14 

Daffodils, 78, 124 

Dangerous tank edges, 137 

Daphne pontica, 83 

Delphinium, 50 

Dentaria, 124 

Desmodium penduliJloru7n, 5 

Dianthus, 96 

Dianthus fragrans, 3, 9, 18 ; 

D. ccEsius, 1 8 ; Z>. plumarius, 

18 ; Z^. superbus, 18 
Difficult Alpines, 105 
Dog- Tooth Violets, 102 
Draba, 96 

Drosera rotundifolia, 77 
Dry as octopetala, 73 
Dry walling, i, 11 and onward 

Edraianthus, 24 
Epigcea repens, 7 it 131 



INDEX 



173 



Epipadis pahistris and lati- 

folia, 73 
Equiseiuin Felmateia^ 80, 112, 

158 
Erinus, 2, 3, 8, 14, 35 
Eriophorum, 77 
Eryngiuin alpinusn, 87 
ErytJironium, 123 
Eulah'a, 152 
Euphorbia, 87 
Eurybia, 26, 93 

Ferns in walls, 2, 4, 8, 14, 

28, 37, 55, 57, 58 
Ferns by water, 68, y2)i ^37 5 "'' 

rock-garden, 93, 103 
Fir, Scotch, 67, 71 
Foot of the wall, 25, 37 
Forget-me-not, Water, 66, 131, 

137 
Flower-border, 50 
Forest pool, 65 
Formal garden, 141 
ForsytJda suspensa, 5 
Foxgloves, 36,94, 124, 158 
Fritillaries, 78 
Fuchsia, 23, 26 
Funkias, 147 

Galax aphylla, 76, 131 

Garden paved passage, 59 

Garden walls, 42 

Gargano, 18 

Garrya elliptica, 48 

Gaultheria procumbens, 75, 81, 
83 ; (7. Shallon, 75, 93 

Gefttiana Pnewnonanthe, yj ; 
species, 102, 123, 131 

Geology in the rock-garden, 12, 
100 ; geological lists of Al- 
pines, 106, 107 

Geranium lucidum, 2)7 



Goody era repens, 76 

Grass of Parnassus, 74 

Grey foliage, plants of, 7 

Griselinia, 25, 27 

Grouping plants in walls, 61 ; 

in rock-garden, 97 
Guelder Rose, 47, 121 
Gunneras, 80, 115, 152, 156 
Gynerium (Pampas Grass), 44, 

152 
Gypsophila, 17, 26 

Haberlea, 32 

Halesia, 121 

Harts-tongue Fern, 38, 147 

Heaths, 77, 86 

Helianthemum, 22, 27, 40 

Heracleum, 71, 80, 157 

Hillside gardens, i 

Hollies, 67 

Honeysuckle, Japan, 4 

Hoitonia, 115 

Houseleek, 33, 40 

Hutchinsia, 34 

Hypericum, 4, 26 ; //. coris, 11 ; 

H. repens, 11 
Hyssop, 22, 26 

lEERlS, 26, 96 

Iberis sempervirens, 20 ; /. odo- 
rata, 24 ; /. correcefolia, 20 • 
/. gibraliarica, 20 ; /. tenore- 
ana, 20 ; /. Pruiti, 20 

Ilex, 126, 148 

Impatiefis Noli-me-tangere, 69 

lonopsidium acaule, 35 

Iris siylosa, 25 ; /. fostidissima, 
41; Iris, 48, 50; /. IcEvigaia, 
= Kampferi, 68, 115, 156 ; 
/. Pseud-acorus, 70, 157 ; 
/. cristata, 93 ; species, 96, 
157 ; /. sibirica, 116 



174 



INDEX 



Ivy, 25 ; Caen wood var., 46 ; on 
steps, 56 

Japan, Iris in, 69 

Jardin Alpin d'Acdimatation, 

Geneva, 100 
Jasione montajta, 40 
Jasmine, 47, 48 
Jerusalem Sage, 5 
Judging the merit of a plant, 17 

Kalmia, 81 

Kew, rock-garden at, 95 

Knoi-wttds {Polygonum), 152 

Lady-fern, 68, 72^ iio> 122, 
147 

Lakes and large ponds, 109 

Laurustinus, 46 

Lavender, 4, 5, 7, 9, 22, 26, 85 

Lavender-cotton, 22 

Lawn spaces, unbroken, 63 and 
onward 

Ledums, 81, 83 

Leucanthetmim lacustre, 117 

Lilies, 48, 50, 148 

Lily of the Valley, 124 

Lily tank in a formal garden, 
141 

Linncsa, 72 

Unaria, 35, 37, 92, 96 

Liparis, 75 

Lithospermum Gastoni, 19; L. 
gramintfoHum, 19 ; L. ros- 
marinifoHum^ 19 ; L. pros- 
iratum, 19, 91 ; L. ptirptiro 
ccEruleuin, 39 

London Pride, 93 

Loosestrife, 70 

Lysiniachia neinoruin, 41 ; vul- 
garis, 70, 1 1 5 

Lythrmn, 71, 115 



Magnolia, 50 

Maidenhair Fern, 58 

Mai axis, 75 

Marliac, Monsieur B. L., 161 

Marsh Helleborine, 72 

Marsh Marigold {Caltha), 71, 

112, 115, 137, 154 
Marsh Rattle, 77 
Meconopsis cambrica, 37 
Meadow-Sweet, 68 
Menyanthes, 1 14 
Menziesia, 83, 86 
Mesetnbryanthetnutn vars., 23, 

26 
Mignonette, wild, 40 
Mimulus, 57, 69, 123, 137 
Mixtures, desirable, 93, 96 
Mitchella repens, 75 
Moneywort, 34 
Moorish gardens, 138 
Miihlenbeckia, 86 
Mulleins, 36 
Myrica, 81 

Narthecium, yy 

Native plants in the rock-wall, 

36 
Nelmnbium, 137 
Nepeta, 22, 27 
Nephrodiwn dilataium 73, 131 ; 

Thelipteris, 131 
Nierevibergia, 131 
NytnphcEa, 117, 130 

Olcaria Haas Hi, 27 

Onoclea sensibilis, 74, 131 

Opuntia, 9, 95 

Orchis, 124 

Orontiu7n, yj 

Osiers, 120 

Osmunda regalis, 68, 73, no 

Othonnopsis, 7, 22, 29 



INDEX 



175 



Overgrowth, watching and re- 
straining, 55 ; advantageous, 
57 

Ozothamnus, 25, 27 

PcBonia, 47, 48, 49 

Pancratium illyricufu, 25 

Parnassia palustris, 74 

Parochetus communis^ 25, 27 

Partridge Berry, 76 

Paths, 5 ; in wild ground, 155 

Pedicularis, jy 

Pennywort, wall, 8, 37 

Periwinkle, 4 

Pernettya, 83 

Petasites, 114 

Petrocallis, 24, 27 

Phlomis fruticosa, 5, 7, 9, 22 

Phlox setacea, 21, 27, 92 ; /". 

stellaria, 21,27 
Pkragmites, lii 
Phyteuma, 24, 26 
Pinks in wall, 2, 9, 26, 39, 59, 

61 ; Pinks in border, 50 ; 

Pinks in rock-garden, 87 
Pingutcula, 85 
Plan of rock-garden, 88 
Plionbago Larpentcz, 25, 27 
Polypody, 38, 62 
Pompeii, 139 
Pondeteria, 116, 130, 137 
Pond-head, 155 
Poplars, no, 118, 120 
Poppy, Welsh, 37, 57 ; Oriental, 

158 
Primula species, 32, 96, 122, 

123, 131 ; Primroses, 41 
Pyrola, 72 
Pyrus japonica, 4, 5 

Quinces, 120 



Rambling growths, 44 

Rambling Rose, 43 

Ramming, 12 

Ramondia, 32 

Ranunculus aquaiilis, 70, 112, 

154 
Reeds, 80, in, 122, 152 
Renaissance, Italian, gardens 

of, 142 
Reseda luiea, 40 
Rkexia, 131 
Rhodockiton, 48, 147 
Rhododendrons, Alpine, 83, 93, 

103, 104 
Rhododendrons by water, 117, 

118 
Rock-garden, .10, 80; plan of, 

88 
Rock Pinks, 7, 17 
Rock-Rose {Helianthemum\ 22, 

27,40 
Rocky pools, 125 
Rodgersia podophyllay 80 
Rosa lucida, 5, 9, 22, 27 ; R. 

arvense, 5, 9 ; R. wichuriana, 

5, 9, 22, 27 ; Roses, Ayrshire, 

6, 47 ; R. sempervirens, 5, 9 ; 
R. spinosissima, 27 

Rose, Cabbage, 46 ; Damask, 46 ; 

Cottage Maid, 46 ; Maiden's 

Blush, 46 ; old H. P. vars, 

47 ; China, 49 
Rosemary, 5, 7, 9, 27, 47, 49, 85 
Roses, hanging over walls, 5, 

152 
Round islands in ponds, 118 
Rubus species, 48 
Ruta-muraria, 14 

Sagiitaria, 1 1 3 
Sandwort, 2, 3, 8 
Sanguinaria, 123 



176 



INDEX 



Santolina, g, 22, 26 

Saponarta, 17, 24, 26 

Sarracenia purpurea^ 74 

Savin, 4, 86 

Saxifrage, 2, 3, 13, 31, 41, 96, 
131 ; S, peltata, 80, 152 ; 6". 
longifolia^ 31 

Scabiosa Pterocephala^ 22, 26 

Scilla, 124 

Seats in bog -garden, 132, 133 

Sedumglaucuin, 21 ; S. Lydiuni^ 
21 ; S. dasyphyllum, 21 ; 6". 
pulchellum, 21 ; ^S'. Kajnis- 
chaticum, 21 ; 6". cosrulenm, 
24 ; 6". Ewersii, 2\ ; S. specta- 
bile, 21 ', S. spuriutn^ 21 

Seeds in wall-joints, 2, 4 

Sedge, 122, 154, 158 

Sempervivum, 33, 96 

Shady rock-wall, 28 

Sheep's Scabious, 40 

Shortia^ 131 

Shrubby plants for wall-top and 
foot, 21 

Shrubs for top of rock-garden, 
87,98 

Sibthorpia, 75, 131 

Silene^ 17, 24, 26, 93 

Skimmia, 83 

Sloping banks of turf, 3 

Sniilacina, 33, 124 

Snapdragon, 2, 9, 33, 61 

Snowdrops, 82, 102 

Snowdrop tree, 121 

Snowflakes, 82, 102, 114 

Solanum jasniinoides^ 147 

Solomon's Seal, 124 

Southern exposure, 6 

Spanish Gorse, 83 

Sparganiutn, 69, 112 

sphagnum, 73, 131 

Spircea species, 68, 158 



Spruce Fir, 109, 117, 119, 120 
St achy s Corsica, 21, 26 
Stepping stones in boggy ground, 

154 
Steps, r, 13, 151 ; overgrown, 

55, 56 
Stitchwort {Siellaria), 36 
St. John's-wort, 4 
Stobcea, 24, 27 

Stonecrops, 2, 21, 26, 40, 43, 96 
Sirat totes, 114 

Stream garden, 66 and onward 
Succulents, 9, 23, 26, 28 
Swamp-pools, 72 and onward 
Sweet Fern, jy 
Sweet Herbs, 22 
Sweet Sedge, 112 
Sytnphyandra species, 34 

Tanks in garden design, 135 

Tansy, 115 

Teucrium Scorodonia, 40 

Terrace, double, 43 

Terraces of dry walling, i and 

onward ; wall-top, 21 
Thalictrutn, 117, 157 
Thelypteris, 74 
Thrift, 2, 9, 38, 62, 86 
Thyme at back of garden seat, 

133 
Toadflax, 37, 42 
Trientalis, 73 
Trillium, 123 
Tritomas, 152 
Tubs in bog-garden, 128 
Turf edges, 49 ; slopes, 149 

Uvtilaria, 124 

Vaccinitcm, 81 
Valerian, 38, 43, 61 
Veratrum, 157 



INDEX 



177 



Verdascuiiiy 36 

Veronica hulkeatta, 25, 27 ; V. 

Traversi, 85 
Viburnum Opulus, no, 121 
Villarsia, 113, 154 
Vines, 48, 59 
Violets, 59 

Wahlenbergia, 24, 26 

Waldsteinia, 34 

Wallflowers, 2, 9, 38, 43, 61 

Wall joints, planting in, 42, 59 

Walls, 45 

Wall-top, 21 

Water Buttercup, 70, 112 

Water-Crowfoot, 70, 112, 154 

Water Dock, 1 1 1 

Water Elder, no, 121 

Water Lilies, wj, 136, 160; in 

tank, 141, 145, 149 ; list of, 

164 



Water margins, 154; plants for 

159 
Water plants, list of, 126 
Water rushing, 150 
Water Violet, 1 1 5 
Willows, 71, no, n9 
Wisley, water plants at, 1 56 
Wood Anemone, 65 
Wood Pimpernel, 41 
Water Plantain, 1 1 1 
Wood Sage, 40 
IVoocisia, 14 
Wood Sorrel, 41, 65 

Xerophyllum asphodeloides, 76 

Yew, 48, 53 

Yuccas, 6, 9, 44, 53, 87 

Zephyranthes carifiata, 25, 27 



THE END 



M 



